Nonoperation of cold stores even after construction worries Dadeldhura farmers

By Our Correspondent, Dadeldhura, Dec.11: Cold stores have been built to store potatoes in two villages in Dadeldhura district. But even a year after their construction completed, the stores have yet to come into operation. And this has worried the farmers.

The construction of the building of a cold store located near the office of the Aalital Rural Municipality in Inner Madhesh was completed a year ago at a cost of Rs. 5 million. 

Information officer of the municipality Indra Bahadur Rawal said that he had no knowledge why they failed to come into operation.

Chief administrative officer Narendra Singh Thagunna is even not aware that there are cold stores there. He said that he had no information about the cold stores.

After the construction of the buildings, Sher Singh Parki, chairman of the rural municipality, said that the refrigerator had yet to be installed inside and preparations were being made for operation soon.

He said that one cold store had a capacity to store about 60 tonnes of potato seeds.

The farmers expected that it would be easier to store the seeds after the cold storage came into operation. Although the buildings have been constructed, the cold storages have not come into operation in absence of refrigerators and other equipment.

Similarly, it took three years to complete the construction of a cold store with the capacity of 30 tonnes near the building of Bagarkot executive office in Bhageshwar Rural Municipality.

But it has not come into operation. In the fiscal year 2020/21, the construction was started at a cost of Rs. 4,100,000. The cold storage was built with the joint investment of the rural municipality and the rural water resource management project.

Farmers are in trouble because the rural municipality is not able to bring the cold storage into operation. Bhageshwar Rural Municipality is also a pocket area for vegetable production.

Chairman of Bhageshwar Rural Municipality Hemraj Chataut said that it could not be brought into operation because there was no generator in the cold store.

He said that the generator had been purchased and the cold store would be operational in a few days.

Due to the lack of cold storage, the farmers are having to sell potatoes for Rs. 30 per kg, while they have to pay up to Rs. 80 per kg for seeds.

If the cold storage is brought into operation, the farmer will be able to plant the potato seeds produced by themselves, said a farmer.

Dhan Bahadur Bhat, another farmer, said that the farmers who were able to store the vegetables and fruits produced in the village in the cold store were hoping to get the price proportional to their hard work.

He expressed his hopes that the farmers would be able to sell potatoes in line with the market demand and would get a reasonable price with the end of the compulsion to purchase seeds.