It’s shocking that when fruits like banana, sapota, guava and mango growing out-of-reach from the aam aadmi’s plate, Odisha sees a whooping over 1.45 lakh tonnes of these fruits going waste every year. Similarly, when farmers are feeling harassed for not getting the right price of their vegetables produced and consumers too feeling the pinch on their pockets, the State loses out over 4-5 lakh tonnes of vegetables post harvest every year. Post-harvest losses for potato are at around 9 per cent of the total production. This peculiar development is mainly due to Odisha having cold storage capacity of only two-fifth of total fruits and vegetables farmers produce every year.
According to all India survey on post-harvest losses by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), post harvest losses in fruits were very high ranging from 7 – 18 per cent and losses in vegetables range from 10 – 15 per cent due to lack of adequate cold storage capacity in States across the country. It shows post harvest losses for guava is the highest among all fruits in the country. Significantly, Odisha with a production of over 1.04 lakh tonnes guava in 2013-14 is a key producer State in the country. Similarly, among vegetables it showed the highest post-harvest losses to the tune of 13 per cent for tomatoes. And tomato is the second largest vegetable Odisha produced in 2013-14 after brinjal. The ICAR report underlines that lack of adequate cold storage capacity in States is cutting both the ways – farmers and consumers – alike.
The latest data available shows that despite Odisha seeing an increase in production of fruits and vegetables to the tune of over 8 lakh tonnes between 2009-10 and 2013-14, the increase in cold storage capacity has been a mere 36,000 tonnes only. While the State saw a cumulative production of fruits and vegetables at over 81 lakh tonnes in 2013-14, the capacity of cold storage units by the year 2013-14 is only 32 lakh tonnes. The yawning gap is amply evident here. Still, only 9 new units came up in a span of last three-long years in the State.
Moreover, a look at the district wise storage capacity available shows that the distribution is highly uneven. As many as fifteen districts in the State don’t have the adequate cold storage facility to store all the horticultural produces they produce. For instance, Keonjhar, Bhadrak, Jharsuguda, Jajpur, Boudh and Kandhamal have cold storage facility for potato only.
Significantly, the districts are top producers of other vegetables too. While Keonjhar is key player in tomato production, Kandhamal is major player in turmeric production. ICAR report estimates the post-harvest losses in turmeric at 7.4 per cent. In Odisha some 4-5 districts have the highest concentration of cold storage units. This is the reason why many private cold storage units in the districts have pulled down their shutters due to consistent losses.
(The writer is a senior Bhubaneswar-based journalist)