MP Kartikeya Sharma raised a query in the Rajya Sabha on Friday regarding the total number of cold storages and warehouses in Haryana, as well as the subsidies offered by the Central and State Governments for the establishment of such storage facilities.
In a written response in the Upper House, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Arjun Munda, emphatically stated that the Government is implementing various schemes to provide financial assistance for the establishment of cold storage facilities for perishable horticultural produce across the country, including Haryana. The Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare is executing the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), which offers financial assistance for various horticulture activities, including the construction, expansion, and modernization of cold storages with a capacity of up to 5000 MT nationwide.
The cold storage component operates on a demand/entrepreneur-driven basis, with the government providing credit-linked back-ended subsidies at a rate of 35% of the project cost in general areas and 50% in hilly and scheduled areas through respective State Horticulture Missions.
The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) administers a Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain, Food Processing, and Preservation Infrastructure as part of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY). This scheme aims to reduce post-harvest losses of both horticulture and non-horticulture produces, providing a remunerative price to farmers for their produce. Moreover, the Government is implementing the Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI), a sub-scheme of the Integrated Scheme for Agricultural Marketing (ISAM).