Himachal doubles CA storage capacity in two years: CM

Shimla: Controlled atmosphere (CA) storage capacity is essential to keep the fruits and vegetables fresh, giving time to market products; otherwise, crops would perish. Seeing the importance of CA, the Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (HPMC) has doubled the CA capacity in the last two years, stated CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Tuesday. He further added that “in the last two years, total CA storage capacity has been increased from 3380 MT before 2023 to 8260 MT across 7 CA stores in the state.”

HPMC has expanded its infrastructure to support agricultural produce, he added. The capacity of the Gumma CA store has been increased from 640 MT to 2017 MT, while the Jarol-Tikker CA store now holds 2062 MT, up from 640 MT. Similarly, the Rohru CA store capacity has been enhanced from 700 MT to 2031 MT. Apart from this, new CA stores have been established at Reckong Peo with a capacity of 250 MT and Chachyot with 500 MT to facilitate the farmers.

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Sukhu further added that the state government has taken several measures over the past two years to ensure the well-being of farmers. “We have introduced the universal carton and increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of apples from Rs 10 to Rs 12 per kg being procured under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS).

Besides this, we have reinstated the subsidy on pesticides that was discontinued during the previous BJP regime, besides clearing Rs 150 crore of pending payments to apple growers under the MIS,” said the chief minister.