Pact with UK for cold chain centre at horticulture varsity

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 16

Haryana and the United Kingdom (UK) have agreed to work jointly to set up a Clean Cold Chain Regional Centre in Horticulture University at Karnal to prevent post-harvest losses in perishable horticulture crops.

Abhilaksh Likhi, Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department, held a meeting with Cliff Wilson from the UK Department of International Trade today. He said both Haryana and the UK would explore the possibility of signing an MoU in this regard. The advice of the Central Government would also be sought, he added.

Likhi said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would help the Crop Cluster Development Programme (CCDP) and it could be finalised during the Agri Leadership Summit to be held in March, 2018.

The UK Government and Birmingham University had been invited to the summit, he added.

He said Haryana had recently launched a programme to organise 13,000 horticultural farmers into a system of 140 crop clusters, intended to speed up the adoption of agricultural and post-harvest management technologies, each with its own logistics centre and refrigerated transport. The state government would provide 90 per cent funds with a budget of Rs 510 crore over three years while farmers would contribute 10 per cent themselves.