Parliament Question: Cold Storage and Post-Harvest Infrastructure in Maharashtra

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2287 ANSWERED ON 12TH FEBRUARY, 2026 COLD STORAGE AND POST-HARVEST INFRASTRUCTURE IN MAHARASHTRA 2287. SHRI MOHITE PATIL DHAIRYASHEEL RAJSINH: SHRI SANJAY DINA PATIL: SMT. SUPRIYA SULE: Will the Minister of FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government is aware that despite immense potential for cold storage and post- harvest infrastructure in Maharashtra, particularly in major horticultural and agricultural regions, farmers have not received adequate encouragement, incentives or institutional support and if so, the details thereof; (b) whether the Government has been unable to establish sufficient cold storage, grading and packaging hubs in rural areas of Maharashtra, leading to post-harvest losses and distress sale of perishable produce and if so, the details thereof; (c) whether the benefits of food processing and cold-chain related schemes have largely accrued to big industrialists and organised players, leaving small and marginal famers neglected; (d) if so, the reasons for such skewed implementation and low farmer-level participation; and (e) if not, the number of farmers assisted in Maharashtra during the last three years, district- wise, along with the amount of financial assistance provided under each such scheme? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES (SHRI RAVNEET SINGH) (a) to (e): The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) is implementing a Central Sector umbrella scheme “Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY)” to support setting up of food processing projects across the country including the State of Maharashtra. Under the component schemes namely (i) Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure (Cold Chain scheme), (ii) Creation of Infrastructure for Agro Processing Clusters (APC scheme) and (iii) Operation Greens (OG scheme) - Long term intervention of PMKSY, cold storage and post-harvest infrastructure are supported as constituents in the integrated food processing projects. However, these component schemes do not support setting up of standalone cold storage and post-harvest infrastructure facilities. The above-mentioned component schemes of PMKSY are demand driven and the proposals for setting up of food processing projects are invited by floating Expression of Interests (EoIs) from time to time. Any eligible entrepreneur including farmers from across the country (including rural areas of Maharashtra) may apply and avail the benefits under any of the component schemes of PMKSY, whenever the Expression of Interest is open.MoFPI is also implementing a Centrally Sponsored “PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) scheme” for providing financial, technical and business support for setting up of new / upgradation of food processing enterprises across the country including the State of Maharashtra. The scheme is demand driven and is being implemented in rural as well as urban areas. The scheme aims to enhance the competitiveness of micro-enterprises in the unorganized segments of the food processing industries and promote formalization of the sector. Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare is implementing Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) for holistic development of horticulture sector in the country. Under MIDH, financial assistance is provided for various post-harvest management infrastructure including setting up of Pack Houses, Integrated Pack House, cold storage, Reefer Transport, Ripening Chamber etc. on the basis of Annual Action Plan (AAP) received from States/UTs. AAPs are prepared by the States/UTs based on their requirement, capacity and availability of resources. This scheme is demand/ entrepreneur driven and financial assistance in the form of credit linked back ended subsidy is provided at the rate of 35% of the project cost in general areas and 50% of the project cost in case of NE & Himalayan States, Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) and Scheduled areas, vibrant villages, Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands through respective State Horticulture Mission(s) (SHMs). The scheme is demand driven and being implemented across the country including the State of Maharashtra. During last three years, from 2022-23 to 2024-25, 353 number of cold storages have been sanctioned under the scheme thereby creating cold storage capacity of 17.03 Lakh MT in the State of Maharashtra. Besides, National Horticulture Board (NHB) under DA&FW is implementing (i) “Development of Commercial Horticulture through Production and Post-Harvest Management of Horticulture Crops” for a better alternative to increase the income of farmers in which the financial support in the form of back-ended subsidy is provided for setting up of units relating to horticulture sector such as production related projects, Post-Harvest Management (PHM) viz. Pack House, Ripening Chamber, Refer Van, Retail Outlets, Pre-cooling units, Primary processing etc. A credit-linked back-ended subsidy at the rate of 35% to 50% of the project cost, subject to prescribed cost norms, is provided under MIDH. The scheme is demand driven and being implemented across the country including the State of Maharashtra. During last three years, from 2022-23 to 2024-25, 363 projects have been approved under the scheme with subsidy of Rs. 78.69 crore. (ii) Capital Investment Subsidy for Construction/ Expansion/ Modernization of Cold Storages and Storages for Horticulture Products, under this scheme, credit linked back-ended subsidy @35% of the capital cost of the project in general areas and @50% in case of North East, Hilly States & Scheduled areas for Cold storage capacity above 5000 MT and up to 20000 MT is sanctioned for construction/expansion/ modernization of cold storage and CA store, as per cost norms prescribed for various sizes/types of cold storages/onion storages. The scheme is demand driven and being implemented across the country including the State of Maharashtra. During last three years, from 2022-23 to 2024-25, 36 projects have been approved under the scheme thereby creating cold storage capacity of 1.90 Lakh MT in the State of Maharashtra. Under component schemes of PMKSY, to avail financial assistance [maximum of Rs. 5.00 crore under Creation/ Expansion of Food Processing and Preservation Capacities; maximum of Rs. 10.00 crore under Cold Chain scheme and APC scheme and maximum of Rs. 15.00 crore under OG scheme] for setting up of food processing projects, any individual / Central & State PSU / Joint Venture / NGO / Cooperative/ Self Help Group (SHG) / Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) / Farmer Producer Company (FPC) / Public & Private Sector Companies / LimitedLiability Partnerships (LLP) / Partnership Firms / Proprietorship Firms from across the country are eligible. Further, FPOs/FPCs comprising of farmers have been provided with the following advantages over the applicants from general area under the component schemes of PMKSY: (i) shall have net worth equal to the grants-in-aid sought as against 1.5 times of the grants-in-aid sought in case of applicant from general area. (ii) shall infuse promoters’ equity of not less than 10% of the total project cost as against not less than 20% of the total project cost in case of applicant from general area (iii) shall avail term loan of not less than 10% of the total project cost as against not less than 20% of the total project cost in case of applicant from general area (iv) shall be eligible for availing grants-in-aid / subsidy at the rate of 50% of the eligible project cost as against 35% of the eligible project cost in case of applicant from general area. As on 31.01.2025, as per the data provided by DA&FW, 8760 total number of cold storages have been created with total capacity of 397.08 LMT across the country. Details of the same are attached as Annexure-I. Under PMKSY, 69 projects with grants-in-aid/ subsidy of Rs. 378.32 crore have been approved during the last three years (2022-23 to 2024-25) in the State of Maharashtra which lead to creation of total processing and preservation capacity of 26.84 Lakh MT / annum. District-wise details of projects approved under various component schemes of PMKSY during last three years (2022-23 to 2024-25) in the State of Maharashtra are provided at Annexure-II. Under PMFME scheme of MoFPI, loans for 23079 micro food processing enterprises have been sanctioned with approved subsidy of Rs. 653.93 crore during last three financial years from 2022-23 to 2024-25. District-wise details of loans approved along with subsidy components during last three years (2022-23 to 2024-25) under PMFME scheme in the State of Maharashtra are provided at Annexure-III. *****ANNEXURE-I ANNEXURE-I REFERRED IN REPLY TO PART (a) TO (e) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2287 ANSWERED ON 12.02.2026 REGARDING “COLD STORAGE AND POST-HARVEST INFRASTRUCTURE IN MAHARASHTRA” State-wise Cold Storage facilities created as on 31.01.2025 in the country Sr. State/UT No. of project Cold Storage created (Capacity No. in MT) 1 Andaman & Nicobar 4 2210 2 Andhra Pradesh & Telangana 480 1996340 3 Arunachal Pradesh 2 6000 4 Assam 43 206742 5 Bihar 316 1490200 6 Chandigarh 7 12462 7 Chhattisgarh 130 577663 8 Delhi 97 129857 9 Goa 29 7705 10 Gujarat 1023 4042770 11 Haryana 386 870703 12 Himachal Pradesh 89 181318 13 Jammu & Kashmir 92 151833 14 Jharkhand 59 242655 15 Karnataka 268 912417 16 Kerala 202 96655 17 Lakshadweep 1 15 18 Madhya Pradesh 320 1381827 19 Maharashtra 665 1219851 20 Manipur 2 4500 21 Meghalaya 4 8200 22 Mizoram 3 4071 23 Nagaland 5 8150 24 Odisha 182 579321 25 Puducherry 4 185 26 Punjab 770 2604206 27 Rajasthan 190 648908 28 Sikkim 2 2100 29 Tamil Nadu 188 399690 30 Telangana 116 617131 31 Tripura 14 46354 32 Uttar Pradesh 2488 15096476 33 Uttarakhand 62 206848 34 West Bengal 517 5952997 Total 8760 39708360 (Source: Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI) up to 2009, National Horticulture Board (NHB), National Horticulture Mission (NHM), Horticulture Mission for North East & Himalayan States (HMNEH)) and MoFPI)ANNEXURE-II ANNEXURE-II REFERRED IN REPLY TO PART (a) TO (e) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2287 ANSWERED ON 12.02.2026 REGARDING “COLD STORAGE AND POST-HARVEST INFRASTRUCTURE IN MAHARASHTRA” District-wise details of projects approved under various component schemes of PMKSY during last three years (2022-23 to 2024-25) in the State of Maharashtra Sr. District No. of approved projects with grants-in-aid/ subsidy under component No. schemes of PMKSY during 2022-23 to 2024-25 CEFPPC Cold Chain FTL scheme APC OG scheme scheme scheme scheme No Amou No Amou No Amou No Amou No Amou . nt (Rs. . nt (Rs. . nt (Rs. . nt (Rs. . nt (Rs. in Cr.) in Cr.) in Cr.) in Cr.) in Cr.) 1. Ahmednagar 3 14.98 2 18.02 0 0 0 0 0 0 2. Aurangabad 4 15.14 2 12.43 1 5.23 0 0 0 0 3. Beed 2 10.00 2 20.00 0 0 0 0 0 0 4. Bhandra 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 10.00 0 0 5. Dhule 1 5.00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6. Hingoli 1 5.00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7. Jalgaon 2 1.36 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8. Kolhapur 2 6.79 1 9.03 0 0 0 0 0 0 9. Nagpur 4 15.97 1 5.00 1 8.01 1 10.0 1 10.00 10. Nandurbar 1 1.73 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11. Nashik 8 39.93 2 12.29 0 0 0 0 1 9.5 12. Navi 0 0 0 0 1 5.32 0 0 0 0 Mumbai 13. Pune 1 5.00 1 8.46 0 0 1 10.0 1 7.00 14. Sangli 2 3.89 1 5.00 0 0 0 0 0 0 15. Satara 9 42.00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 16. Solapur 0 0 1 9.52 0 0 1 10.0 1 5.00 17. Thane 0 0 0 0 3 15.08 0 0 0 0 18. Washim 2 6.64 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 42 173.43 13 99.75 6 33.64 4 40.0 4 31.5 *****ANNEXURE-III ANNEXURE-III REFERRED IN REPLY TO PART (a) TO (e) OF THE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2287 ANSWERED ON 12.02.2026 REGARDING “COLD STORAGE AND POST-HARVEST INFRASTRUCTURE IN MAHARASHTRA” District-wise details of loans approved along with the subsidy component of during last three years under PMFME scheme in the State of Maharashtra: S. Number of Loans Subsidy District Name No. Sanctioned (Rupees in crore) 1 Ahilyanagar 1426 63.13 2 Akola 437 11.38 3 Amravati 932 11.37 4 Beed 133 5.72 5 Bhandara 6.83 341 6 Buldhana 937 31.17 7 Chandrapur 724 5.29 8 Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar 1836 23.41 9 Dharashiv 432 9.10 10 Dhule 545 10.92 11 Gadchiroli 293 1.95 12 Gondia 648 6.22 13 Hingoli 193 5.48 14 Jalgaon 966 31.91 15 Jalna 548 10.31 16 Kolhapur 946 61.31 17 Latur 353 6.72 18 Mumbai 6 0.21 19 Mumbai Suburban 45 0.96 20 Nagpur 717 13.59 21 Nanded 344 11.01 22 Nandurbar 510 10.60 23 Nashik 1205 50.82 24 Palghar 304 6.54 25 Parbhani 302 6.71 26 Pune 1129 62.45 27 Raigad 234 4.42 28 Ratnagiri 380 13.99 29 Sangli 1228 39.61 30 Satara 939 43.35 31 Sindhudurg 554 14.81 32 Solapur 986 41.21 33 Thane 347 10.45 34 Wardha 871 7.25 35 Washim 477 6.92 36 Yavatmal 811 6.82 Grand Total 23079 653.93