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Our Correspondent

District panels set up to help in post-harvest infrastructure

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Madurai Feb. 26 In order to strengthen the post-harvest infrastructure of vegetables and fruits in Tamil Nadu, the State Government is willing to provide 25 per cent subsidy to farmers to create packinghouses with controlled and modified atmosphere and to purchase refrigerator vans.

Refrigerated vans

During 2006-07, subsidy to 60 backhouses and 60 refrigerated vans has been envisaged, according to Mr P.M. Basheer Ahamed, Commissioner, Agricultural Marketing & Agri Business Directorate, Government of Tamil Nadu,

Delivering the special address at the Special Plenary Session on `Tamil Nadu Agricon 2007', a two-day conference and exhibition on agriculture, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at Tiruchi recently, Mr Basheer said that over 20-30 per cent of agriculture produce is being wasted due to lack of proper post harvest processing infrastructure. Farmers must form clusters and jointly set up backhouses and processing industries.

The Government has instituted District Monitoring Committees headed by district collectors to form clusters and facilitate bank loans to create post-harvest infrastructure, besides offering training to farmers on post-harvest technologies. The Government has set up a trial plant of ethylene-based controlled atmosphere packinghouses at Kattuputthur for bananas. The Government is proposing to set up an Agriculture Export Zone at Tiruchi. The project is now under APEDA study.

e-auction facilities

The Government is also keen to introduce electronic auctioning facilities to enhance the returns for farmers, who can directly sell their produce to national and even international markets.

At present, the Government is undertaking a study to look at the feasibility of e-auction sites for banana and other fruits, he added.

Organic foods

Addressing the technical session on Banana Trade and Marketing, Dr Jagannathan, Faculty, Rural Training Centre, Indian Overseas Bank, said that foreigners are willing to buy fair-trade and organic bananas even if the cost is higher and are willing to pay a premium of 30 per cent to 80 per cent of the normal banana price.

Domestically, the consumption of processed foods has been growing at a rate of more than 10 cent annually and the export of processed fruits and juices has increased by a little over 30 per cent in terms of value during 1997-98, indicating the positive growth in processed fruit industry sector.

Dr K. Mahendran, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural and Rural Management, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, said the presence of numerous intermediaries in the marketing channel emphasised the need for effective supply chain management. The food basket is undergoing changes and there is a paradigm shift in nature and quality of produce and product demanded because of increasing working population, rising disposable income, greater international exposure and growing health consciousness, he added.

Mr B.V. Ramanan, Chairman, CII-Tiruchi, welcomed the participants.

More Stories on : Storage | Horticulture/Fruits & Vegetables | Tamil Nadu

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