India currently has a total cold storage capacity of 226.7 lakh tonnes (lt) as against the required capacity of 350 lt. Of this, a capacity of 53.55 lt was created under different schemes since the NDA government took over in 2014-15, according to official sources.

There are largely two different schemes to provide financial assistance to set up cold storage facilities in the country — one under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) of the Agriculture Ministry and another called Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) managed by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

Since 2014-15, a total of 1,104 cold storage facilities with a total capacity of 48.24 lt were created under MIDH. As many as 208 cold chain and value addition infrastructure facilities with 5.3 lt capacity were built under PMKSY till October 31 this year, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

According to a 2015 study carried out by the National Centre for Cold Chain Development (NCCD), an autonomous body under the Agriculture Ministry, India needs cold storage infrastructure of 350 lt to take care of the needs of farmers in the country.

Among the States, Uttar Pradesh, with a total of 1,817 cold storage facilities of 98.82 lt tops the list, followed by Gujarat with 827 facilities with 30.32 lt capacity and Punjab with 430 structures with 14.13 lt.

Among other major states, Andhra Pradesh has a cold storage capacity of 11.4 lt (224 cold storage facilities), Maharashtra 8.07 lt (392), Bihar 7.83 (181) and Madhya Pradesh 7.32 lt (186).

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