Cold stores come in operation in Bagmati Province

By Our Correspondent

Dhading, Aug 28 : The cold store centres constructed by the Bagmati Province government to promote agricultural production and keep them safe have started to come into operation.

The cold storage built in the districts of Bagmati province including Dhading has brought new hopes to the farmers.

Farmers are happy to be able to store the vegetables and fruit products produced at any time and sell them at the time of their choice. After the establishment of the cold stores, it will be easy to store agricultural products produced by the farmers in their own place.

Ganga Bisural, a farmer of Benighat Rorang Rural Municipality of Dhading, has the experience of wasting many products due to a lack of cold storage.

He said that now that the cold storage is operational at his own place, there is hope that the products will not be wasted.

"Especially Benighat is considered to be the pocket area of orange and vegetable production. 

Farmers here throw a large number of vegetables such as tomatoes and cauliflower every year being unable to get good prices. 

If there was a cold store, it could have been stored," he said.

He said that they are happy after the construction of a cold store in the village.

"We think that our products will be saved from wastage," he said.

 Dinesh Acharya, chief of Agriculture Knowledge Centre, Dhading, said that the cold storage will support farmers to produce more vegetables than the current one and the cost to the farmers will be reduced and the yield will increase.

Farmers have not been able to store the vegetables produced due to a lack of cold storage in the district.

According to Acharya, if it is kept outside the district, the cost will increase, after building cold storage in one's own district, if it can be stored and sold even in the off-season, the price will be better.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development under the Bagmati Province government has constructed cold storage at 12 locations across the province.

Dr Saran Kumar Pandey, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, informed that the other nine cold store centres in Dhading, Nuwakot, Sindhupalchowk, Ramechhap, Chitwan, Makwanpur, Kavrepalanchowk and Sindhuli districts are in the final stages of operation.

According to Pandey, vegetables and fruits such as potatoes, garlic, and onion can be stored in the centre without spoiling their quality.

The construction of cold storage, which started three years ago, has been completed in almost all districts.

The cold storage that was supposed to be built in Makwanpur and Dolakha has been postponed for now.

Currently constructed and under construction, cold storage have a capacity of 250 to 1500 tonnes. The cold storage has been constructed with 70 per cent cost sharing by the Bagmati provincial government and 30 per cent cost sharing at the local level.