Subsidy cut makes setting up cold stores unattractive for apple farmers

Kuldeep Chauhan

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Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 30

The farmers who seek to set up the controlled atmospheric stores (CAS), cold stores, grading and packaging houses in cooperatives and private sector suffered a major setback as the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) of the Central government has made a drastic drop in the subsidies by cutting the cost of the CAS from Rs 70,000 per metric tonnes (MT) to Rs 35,000 per MT.

As a result of this cut, farmers would get a subsidy benefit of Rs10,000 per MT, said a CAS-and-cold -store expert, citing the MIDH guidelines.

MIDH guidelines aim at benefitting big corporate such as Adani Agrifresh Ltd which enjoys a virtual monopoly in CAS in the region. Since farmers would get a subsidy benefit of Rs10,000 per MT, they would be discouraged to set up their own CAS or cold stores, entrepreneurs rued.

Farmers flayed the MIDH guidelines, notified by the Horticulture Division, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, this year for cutting down the cost-subsidy component for CAS and cold stores and grading and packing houses.

Himachal needs CAS capacity to store about 1 crore apple cartons to check the glut in markets that, in turn, hit market prices. “But MIDH guidelines have come as a major setback for apple farmers at a time when they are coming forward to set up their CAS, grading and packaging houses, cold store, running refrigerated transport system to compete in global markets,” said Prakash Thakur, an orchardist and vice-chairman of the HPMC.

MIDH guidelines have been notified to appease farmers in bigger states, considering that apple is grown mainly in two states of Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Uttarakhand, the farmers alleged.

Adanis, Devbhumi and others have set up CAS in the apple belt but their capacity does not exceed 30,000 MT. In Europe, more than 80 per cent apple is stored in CAS which has been set in private and cooperative sectors. If we want to compete in global markets, we need subsidies on CAS, grading and packaging houses, said Lakshman Thakur, chairman of Ecohort, who recently visited high-density apple orchards in Italy.