Indian Railways Develops Cold Storage In Nashik; To Benefit Farmers
The cold storage at Lasalgaon will be a boon to the farmers of not only Nashik and Lasalgaon, but also of nearby areas of Jalgaon, Manmad, Dhule, etc
Maharashtra government is developing a cold store, along with Indian Railways, at Lasalgaon near Nashik for storage of onions and other perishable produce.
This cold storage will have a total capacity of 2500 MT out of which 1500 MT will be exclusively utilised for onion storage and remaining for other perishable commodities such as fruits & vegetables like Onion, Pomegranate, Grapes, Banana, Tomato, and Citrus.
The cold storage at Lasalgaon will be a boon to the farmers of not only Nashik and Lasalgaon, but also of nearby areas of Jalgaon, Manmad, Dhule, etc.
Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Minister of Railways and Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra has laid the foundation stone for the warehouse on Sunday (30 July). Indian Railways’ PSU CONCOR (Container Corporation of India ltd) is developing the store.
The cold storage is being set up at a cost of Rs 5 crore. The cold storage will be maintained by Lasalgaon Vibhag Sahakari Kharedi Vikri Sangh Ltd.
Railways is a major transporter for onion and plays a key role in timely transportation of onion to various consumer market from producer states. To reduce the spoilages, Indian Railways allots the rakes/ wagons on priority basis wherever possible for carriage of onion.
The climatic conditions largely affect the onion growing areas thereby leading to fluctuations in farm produce. The bumper production needs to be properly stored to stabilise supply during scarcity.
The conventional methods lead to losses exceeding 35 per cent depending on the weather conditions. The losses are thus national loss as the input cost increases.
The cold storage will help in increasing the post storage life of onions and they can be even sent to remote locations. The labour cost is reduced to a great extent as there is no need for turning around the onions as required in conventional storage.
There is direct saving of material cost and farming cost due to saving in weight and spoilage losses. Maharashtra being 33 per cent contributor to the national onion production needs quality storage options.