New Delhi: Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Arjun Munda on Tuesday said the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is implementing the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) under which financial assistance is provided for various horticulture activities, including construction, expansion and modernisation of cold storages of capacity up to 5,000 MT in the country based on Annual Action Plan (AAP) received from States/Union Territories.
In a written reply to a question regarding cold storage, Munda in the Lok Sabha said AAPs are prepared by the States/UTs based on their requirement, capacity and availability of resources. As per available information, currently, there are 8,653 cold storages in the country with a capacity of 394.17 lakh MT, he said.
The component of cold storage is demand and entrepreneur driven for which government assistance in the form of credit-linked back-ended subsidy is available at the rate of 35 per cent of the project cost in general areas and 50 per cent of the project cost in hilly and scheduled areas through respective State Horticulture Missions, the minister said.
Under the scheme, assistance is available to individuals, groups of farmers, growers, consumers, partnerships, proprietary firms, Self Help Groups (SHGs), Farmers' Producer Organisations (FPOs), companies, corporations, cooperatives, Cooperative Marketing Federations, local bodies, Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) and Marketing Boards and State governments, he said.
The government is implementing various schemes under which financial assistance is available for setting up cold storages for perishable horticultural produce across the country, including the States of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and the UT of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Munda said.
Besides, the National Horticulture Board (NHB) is implementing a scheme “Capital Investment Subsidy for Construction/Expansion /Modernisation of Cold Storages and Storages for Horticulture Products”. Under the scheme, credit-linked back-ended subsidy at the rate of 35 per cent of the capital cost of the project in general areas and 50 per cent in case of North East, hilly and scheduled areas for the construction, expansion and modernisation of cold storages and Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage of capacity above 5,000 MT and up to 10,000 MT is available. In the case of North East region, the units with a capacity above 1,000 MT are also eligible for assistance, the minister added. As per the available information, Rs 4641.00 crore have been sanctioned for 1,527 cold storage and cold chain projects under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) scheme, Munda said.
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