Government is implementing Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) for development of horticulture including post harvest management. Under the mission assistance is provided for development of all relevant infrastructure including pack house, pre-cooling units, staging cold room, cold storages, controlled atmosphere (CA) storage, reefer vans, primary/mobile processing units and setting up of ripening chambers etc. to promote logistic integration with the aim to reduce losses across total supply chain and enable farmers to access markets to get remunerative prices for their produce.

The component is demand/ entrepreneur-driven from among entrepreneurs, private companies, cooperatives, farmers groups etc through commercial ventures for which assistance @ 35% of admissible project cost in general areas and @ 50% in hilly and schedule area is available as credit linked and back ended subsidy.

The State wise allocations under MIDH are made on the basis of Annual Action Plan. States have been advised to allocate 35% – 40% of allocations under MIDH for creation of post harvest management including cold chain development. During the current year an amount of Rs. 14829.00 lakh has been allocated to Maharashtra under MIDH which includes Rs. 5135.00 lakh for development of post harvest infrastructure including cold chain.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Shri Parshottam Rupala, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, today.