As many as 13 districts in the State do not have cold storage facilities resulting in the surplus vegetables, fruits and other perishable agrarian produce going into waste.
The cold storages are currently in operation in 17 districts only while the remaining 13 districts have no such facility for farmers.
Khordha and Cuttack districts have the highest concentration of cold storage at seven and five respectively.
The districts which do not have cold storage infrastructure are Gajapati, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Kalahandi, Boudh, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Malkangiri, Nuapada, Kandhamal, Subarnapur, Nayagarh and Bargarh, said officials of agriculture and farmers’ empowerment department.
Incidentally, some of the districts with no cold storage are among the leading producers of perishable commodities.
Cold storage, which plays a key role in increasing the production of fruits and vegetables, extend the shelf life of produce, maintain quality, prevent oversupply, reduce transport bottlenecks, and period of marketing during the peak period.
The failure of the State Potato Mission launched amid much fanfare in 2015 bears testimony to the fact that surplus produce goes down the drain, affecting the farmers badly.
The government had admitted the failure of the potato mission for the absence of the cold storage facility to store the produce. The State continues to be heavily dependent on neighbouring West Bengal to meet the State’s demand.
In order to make the State self-sufficient in potatoes by the year 2017-18, the State Government had launched the State Potato Mission during 2015-16 for production, storage and distribution of potatoes in the State. During the year 2015-16 to 2017-18, RS 26.65 crore (20.5 per cent) was utilized against a budget provision of Rs 130 crore. Similarly, against the physical target of establishing 55 cold storages, only 23 (41.81 per cent) cold storages had been established as of March 2018, an audit report by Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had earlier pointed out.