The government has taken an initiative to build 1,000 cold-storage units in various parts of the country to preserve perishable produce. The move aims to cut post-harvest waste of potatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes and other produce and to ensure fair prices for farmers. Whether the units will be built under a project or without one — for faster implementation — is still under discussion, but the agriculture ministry has already directed officials concerned to make the necessary preparations.
According to the ministry, the cold-storage units will be set up not under any long-term project but through direct budget allocation or a special emergency process. The policy decision was taken at a high-level meeting at the agriculture ministry before Eid-ul-Azha, where the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) director general, agriculturist Abdur Rahim, was directed to take quick, effective steps. Contacted, DAE director general Abdur Rahim confirmed the matter, telling Amar Desh that the ministry had directed the urgent construction of 1,000 air-conditioned storage units without any project, and that he would consult officials under the department to decide quick steps. He said the country’s storage capacity is far short of demand, so perishable produce cannot be kept for long, which is why the government has ordered this special plan on a priority basis; preparations are also under way to buy 4,000 onion-preservation machines.
Those in the agriculture sector say storage infrastructure has not grown in proportion to the rising production of various crops each year. With insufficient cold storage — especially for potatoes, onions, garlic, ginger and seasonal vegetables — supply floods the market at once, prices fall, and farmers struggle to recover production costs. According to DAE data, the country’s annual potato demand is about 90 lakh tonnes against existing cold-storage capacity of about 45 lakh tonnes; by government count, up to about 30 percent of total potato output is lost for lack of storage, with similar problems for onions and other perishables. To meet the gap, the Department of Agricultural Marketing took up a pilot project in 2022-23 at the interest of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); under the “Potato Multi-use, Preservation and Marketing Development Project,” 450 “non-refrigerated model houses” were built in 16 districts including the Rangpur division, each costing about 1.5 lakh taka at government expense. Last fiscal year, in Rangpur district alone, 45 of 75 non-refrigerated model houses were used to trial potato storage. But in field reality these houses fall far short of demand, so rapidly setting up 1,000 new air-conditioned storage units and 4,000 onion-preservation machines could play a big role in the country’s agricultural economy and help ensure fair prices for farmers’ produce.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report