Cold storages to be restarted in Bidar

Source: the Hindu :




The government will restart the cold storages on the sericulture district office premises at Naubad in Bidar. The six units – that have remained defunct for some years – will now be repaired and used for storing foodgrains, vegetables, and other perishable produce.

The centre was established under a World Bank-supported sericulture development programme backed by the Ramakrishna Hegde government in 1987.

Objective

It was intended to help silk rearing farmers get good-quality silk worm eggs and mulberry saplings, and help them nurture the worms and reel the cocoons. The storages were used to store eggs and chemicals used in silk rearing and processing.

However, it has been scantily used. It was closed in 1998-99 after developing technical snags. This led to the department shutting the cold storages down, but it allowed the farmers to use other facilities. With a decrease in mulberry cultivation and silk rearing activities in the district, use of the facility has been minimal.

The district administration wants to take up extensive maintenance of the facility and open it up for farmers. Deputy Commissioner Anurag Tewari visited the farm and interacted with officials on Tuesday. He said he would seek a detailed technical report from the officials about what needs to be done to make the cold storage operational.

“We have been planning a chain of actions to help farmers. We are building ware houses in villages, hobli and taluk headquarters. We are erecting silos in select places to process and store grain, and cold storages to store vegetables and fruits. We will start by using existing facilities and build new ones later,” he said.



They were established in 1987 by the then Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde, but closed in 1998-99



Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/cold-storages-to-be-restarted-in-bidar/article7922090.ece



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