India: No cold storage facilities a big headache for veggie growers

Though the state government had opened a cold store at a new vegetable market in Rohtak city, it has been lying defunct for long.

Mainly, vegetables like potato, tomato, carrot, cucumber, bottle gourd, cauliflower, green chilli, spinach, brinjal, bitter gourd etc are sown in the district over 14,000 acres, but potato, among these, can be preserved in cold store for several months. The cultivation area of potato in the district is around 600 acres.

“The input cost of potato increases every year, but there is no change in the price due to potato glut, especially in the season. Growers are compelled to sell the produce at throwaway prices at that time, as they are unable to preserve it in cold stores being a costly affair, while such a facility is not available at the government level. The cold store charges Rs 150 per bag of 50 kg for some months,” said Virendra, a vegetable grower from Sunaria village.

Vinay, owner of a cold store, said around 100 farmers were using the facility just to keep potato seeds. “I have a capacity of 10,000 bags, but 30 to 40 per cent space remains unoccupied,” he added.

Devender Dhull, secretary, Rohtak Market Committee, said the government’s cold store was not in a working condition since 2018. “In the initial years, the cold store was rented out to private persons, but this practice could not sustain for long,” he added.

Meanwhile, Harsh Girdhar, president, Rohtak Grain Market Association, said the non-availability of the processing units at local level, lack of awareness among farmers about marketing of their products, and change in crop patterns were among the reasons that farmers were not getting expected price for vegetables.