Food cold chain in northeast

Organic fruits and vegetables grown in the North-Eastern states are showcased as having the immense potential of tuning the region into a food processing hub to capture domestic and export markets. Underutilization of budgetary provisions under various central schemes for the promotion of food processing units in the region despite various concessions is a paradox that continues to persist. The failure to harness the potential overshadows individual success stories of the export of fruits and vegetables from the region to different countries as well as supplying to domestic markets. Restructured Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY)- the umbrella scheme of food processing will continue to be implemented in 2026 which keeps alive the hope for motivating food entrepreneurs from the region as well as food promoters to avail benefits under the scheme to set up more food processing units. The 'Operation Greens' that was launched as a new sub-scheme under PMKSY in 2018 covered only three crops- tomato, onion and potato in which the region had very low stakes. The Scheme has two components- Short Term Measures under which transportation and/or storage subsidy is provided with a subsidy of 50% during a "glut situation" and long-term measures under which credit-linked financial support by way of grants-in-aid is provided to eligible applicants for setting up value chain development projects. The scope of short-term measures was later extended to 41+ notified fruits and vegetables while the scope of long-term measures was extended to 22 perishables, including 10 fruits, and 11 vegetables in 2020. Key objectives of Operation Greens are enhancing value realisation by linking or connecting growers or farmers' producer's companies to markets, price stabilization for producers and consumers by proper production planning, reducing post-harvest losses by creation of farm gate infrastructure, development of suitable agro-logistics, creation of appropriate storage capacity linking consumption centres, increasing food processing capacities and setting up a market intelligence network for real-time data on demand and supply. While scheme objectives and components sound realistic, assessing the gaps in the region is critical to improving budgetary allocations. Achieving the primary objective of the PMKSY of creating modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to retail outlet is crucial for growers in the region to enhance income, generate employment opportunities, reduce loss of agricultural produce, increase the processing level and enhance export of processed foods. While a big push to air, water and railway connectivity in the region has created the desired ecosystem for moving produce from rural production hubs to retail centres in cities and towns much faster the missing cold chain has been hampering the growth of the food processing industry. The Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended that the Ministry should "identify the requirement of cold storage in areas where there is farm cultivation taking place in a bountiful manner, but farmers could not establish their cold storage due to paucity of funds." The Ministry in those instances should sponsor cold chain in those areas where there is no remote possibility of opening cold storage by entrepreneurs, added the committee in its report. The required cold chain not coming up in the region despite the central scheme of "Integrated Cold Chain & Value Addition Infrastructure" being under implementation since 2008-09 makes the region an eligible candidate for the Ministry to shoulder the responsibility of building the cold chain in North-eastern states instead of waiting for private investors to come forward and build the infrastructure. Once it is built by the Ministry, the operation and maintenance can be explored in a public-private partnership mode for sustainability. This scheme envisages providing integrated cold chain infrastructure facilities, without any break, from the farm gate to the consumer end and covers the creation of infrastructure facilities along the entire supply chain -pre-cooling, weighing, sorting, grading, waxing facilities at the farm level, multi-product/multi-temperature cold storage, storage, freezing in the distribution hub and reefer vans, mobile cooling units for facilitating distribution of horticulture, organic produce, dairy, meat and poultry etc. The integrated cold chain project can be set up by partnership/ proprietorship firms, companies, corporations, cooperatives, self-help groups farmer producer organizations NGOs, and Central or State public sector units. The schemes are demand-driven, proposals are invited through the expression of interest from eligible and interested entrepreneurs/promoters and projects are approved in terms of scheme guidelines, from amongst proposals. Amongst states in the region, Assam has the highest number of 39 cold storage of about 1.78 lakh MT capacity followed by Tripura with 14 cold storages while most other states region have only two to four cold storages which speaks volumes about the ground realities of the status of development of the cold chain in the region. Development of cold chain in the region including facilities for sorting, grading, and value addition is crucial for the export consignments of fruits and vegetables from the region to meet global quality standards and also find a way to new markets.