POST HARVEST PROCESSING, VALUE ADDITION & STORAGE IN

WEST BENGAL: CURRENT STATUS & WAY FORWARD

1. Introduction

2. Present status (District / Block-wise)

a. Storage structure for farm produce
- Commercial crops
29 cold storage facilities are available for Potato storage with a capacity
of total 387060 MT
b. Processing units
- Agricultural crops
There are a total of around 230 processing units. Out of these 78 are
cereal and pulse processing and 152 are paddy processing
- Horticultural,
1 is fruits and vegetable processing unit
- Plantation
28 are oil processing units
- Spices,
10 are spices processing units
- Fisheries
NIL
- Livestock
NIL
- Poultry
30 Poultry processing units in the district
- Honey
NIL
- Miscellaneous
NIL

3. Description of the constraints (District / Block-wise)

 a. Storage and processing facility
- All sectors mentioned above
Short of storage facilities. During harvesting season there is acute shortage of
storage facility
Electricity failure: In the storage facililites of rural area there is frequent power
cut. Usage of generators leads to higher cost
Water supply: Bankura faces acute shortage of water supply
High maintenance cost of cold storage
Unequal distribution of the presence of cold storages
Poor management of coldstores
No net-working of coldstores because majority of them operate as standalone unit
Most of the cold stores are outdated in terms of technological point of view
Non-accessibility of cold store facility to the poor and remotely placed farmers
Technical knowhow used is very poor and back dated
Unhygienic processing conditions
Cheap quality of raw materials used for processing and lack of finance to manage
Substandard machines and equipments
Vagaries of weather.
Unavailability of reliable handling and transportation system.
Lack of storage facilities at processing centre
Lack of modern transportation facilities and high cost
Higher import duties on modern equipments
Infrequent availability of refrigerated containers
Staggering advertising costs
Does not get value for money
The price variation is a day to day affair
Continued dependence on seasonal products
Lack of variety of semi processed or prepared convenience food at affordable
prices.
4. Proposed technological intervention (District / Block-wise)
a. Storage at farm level / block / district level
 Creation of Krishi Samabay Samiti, who have their own storehouse where
members are provided with storage facilities of their products at a low cost
Technological intervention in the construction of Cold Storage (Supplement I)
Technological intervention in the creation of small storage units temporarily
(Supplement II)
b. Post-harvest processing, value addition & waste / by-product utilization
Extruded snack foods
Fish And Prawn Pickle manufacturing
c. Entrepreneurship & Start up
- All sectors mentioned above

Creation of Industrial park

Poultry dressing processing unit

Fish Processing plant

Fruits and Vegtables Processing plant

Bhujia Processing plant

Chanachur processing plant

5. Conclusions & way forward

Ministry of Food Processing Industries should implement different government schemes.
The objective of these schemes should be-
To supplement agriculture, modernize processing and decrease agri-waste
Develop mega Food Parks.
Integrate Cold Chain, Value Addition and Preservation Infrastructure.
Creation/Expansion of Food Processing/Preservation Capacities.
Infrastructure for Agro Processing Clusters.
Scheme for Creation of Backward and Forward Linkages.
Food Safety & Quality Assurance Infrastructure.
Human Resources and Institutions.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy: FDI up to 100%, under the automatic route
should be allowed in food processing industries.
Focuss on ‘export’ of scheduled products.