‘Encourage cooperatives, producers bodies’ to promote use of CA stores among growers

Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (HPMC) Limited is renting its refurbished controlled atmosphere (CA) stores along with grading and packing lines to private players. Similarly, the Himachal Pradesh State Agriculture Marketing Board (HPSAMB) is also looking for a private player to operate and maintain its newly-built CA store facility at Parala.

As per HPMC officials, the decision to rent these facilities was taken following the lack of interest shown by the growers in using these facilities. These stores remained largely vacant over the past few years, resulting in losses to the cash-strapped government enterprise.

Why are local fruit growers not using the facilities even as the CA stores are an integral part of the fruit economy across the world? Especially when these cold storage facilities give farmers control over the supply chain and help them get remunerative prices for their produce. Prakash Thakur, a former HPMC vice-chairman, has the answer.

He says, “Around 90 to 95 per cent growers in the state are small and marginal having small landholdings. They need cash to pay their bills and take care of various expenses once the fruit is harvested. They do not have the economic strength to store the produce and wait for another four to six months for cash. So, the tendency is to sell their entire produce in the running market, even if the prices are low.”

Another reason that discourages growers from storing their produce is the size of the CA stores and its chambers. It takes at least 4,000 to 5,000 apple boxes to fill one chamber of a CA store, requiring several small growers to come together if they want to store their produce. It’s difficult in the first place for many growers to come together and then build a consensus on decisions like when to get the produce out for sale.

Thakur says both constraints are not unassailable hurdles. “The growers should opt for the Warehouse Receipt Scheme, under which banks offer loans against the produce stored in CA stores. The scheme discourages distress sale by offering loans against the produce stored in CA stores. Besides, it provides financial liquidity to farmers to pay their bills while waiting for better prices for their produce,” he adds. “The government needs to advertise this scheme so that growers become aware and benefit from it,” he says.

He suggests that the culture of cooperatives and farmer producers organisations should be encouraged, which can hire chambers in CA stores for its members.

He says, “The HPMC should help the growers sell their produce when they take it out of the CA stores. The HPMC should tie up with companies like Big Basket, Reliance, etc, to buy this apple.” He adds that the government needs to strengthen the HPMC if the enterprise were to fulfil the objectives it was formed for.

Many growers, though, feel that the smaller CA stores with smaller chambers would encourage the growers to use these facilities. “We need to have small CA stores at the panchayat level if we really want the growers to use these facilities. If smaller stores are available at the panchayat level, the growers can take the decision in real time to store their produce or sell in the running season, depending on the prevailing rates in the market,” says Thakur.

“Smaller stores may cost a little more but at least the growers will use them. At present, we are building CA stores and associated facilities for private players using public money,” he adds.

Small farmers, big chambers in stores

• Prakash Thakur, a former HPMC vice-chairman, says around 90 to 95 per cent of growers in the state are small and marginal
• They need cash to pay their bills and they do not have the economic strength to store their produce and wait for another four to six months for cash
• Another reason that discourages growers from storing their produce is the size of the CA stores and its chambers
• It takes at least 4,000 to 5,000 apple boxes to fill one chamber of a CA store
• This requires several small growers to come together if they want to store their produce, which is difficult