Lok Sabha Question No. 4527 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-03-19
Subject: Cold Storage and Transportation Facilities
Ministry: FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES
Asked by: Dr. Gumma Thanuja Rani

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4527

ANSWERED ON 19 TH  MARCH, 2026

## COLD STORAGE AND TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES

## 4527. DR. GUMMA THANUJA RANI:

Will the Minister of Food Processing Industries be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has any specific plans to address the lack of cold storage and transportation facilities especially for perishable goods and if so, the expected timelines for these improvements;
- (b) whether  the  Ministry  is  collaborating  with  other  Ministries  such  as  Road  Transport  & Highways and Railways to enhance logistical infrastructure for the timely transportation of agricultural products and if so, the details of such collaborations; and
- (c) the extent to which post-harvest losses have impacted farmer incomes due to infrastructure deficits and the steps being taken by the Government to reduce such losses?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES (SHRI RAVNEET SINGH)

(a) & (b) : 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.  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 transport facilities (reefer vehicles/ insulated vans)  are supported as constituents in the integrated food processing projects. However, these component schemes do not support setting up of standalone cold storage and transportation facilities. All the component schemes of PMKSY are demand driven and financial assistance in the form of grants-in-aid/ subsidy is provided for setting up of food processing projects at the rate of 35% of the eligible project cost in case of projects from general areas and 50% in case of projects from difficult areas as well as projects for SC/ ST, FPOs and SHGs subject to a maximum of ₹ 10.00 crore in case of Cold Chain scheme/ APC scheme as well as in case of standalone projects under OG scheme and ₹ 15.00 crore in case of integrated projects under OG scheme.

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).

Besides, National Horticulture Board (NHB) under DA&FW is implementing a scheme namely, 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 & Scheduled areas  for  Construction/  Expansion/  Modernization  of  cold  storage  and  Controlled  Atmosphere (CA) storage of capacity above 5000 MT and up to 10000 MT is available. In case of North Eastern Region, the units with capacity above 1000 MT are also eligible for financial assistance. Further, to strengthen agriculture infrastructure in the country, DA&FW has launched Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) of ₹ 1.00 lakh crore. Under AIF, there is provision for collateral free term loans up to ₹ 2.00 crore and interest subvention of 3% on the term loan availed for creation of post-harvest infrastructure including establishment of cold storages and transportation facilities. As on 31.01.2025, as per the data provided by DA&FW, 8760 number of cold storages have been created with total capacity of 397.08 LMT across the country. Details of the same are attached at Annexure-I. The Inter-Ministerial Consultations (IMCs) are made as and when required by this Ministry to develop strategies to enhance logistical infrastructure for timely transportation of farm produce/ processed foods. Further, MoFPI under the component schemes, namely Cold Chain scheme and OG scheme of PMKSY provides support to logistics infrastructure (reefer vehicles/ insulated vans) as a constituent in the integrated food processing projects for facilitating transport of farm produce/ processed foods. As on 31.12.2025, 1575 number of reefer vehicles / insulated vans have been supported.

(c): MoFPI has conducted two studies namely (i) 'Assessment of Quantitative Harvest and PostHarvest Losses of Major Crops and Commodities in India', 2015 with reference year 2012-14 through  Indian  Council  of  Agriculture  Research  (ICAR)  -Central  Institute  of  Post-Harvest Engineering & Technology (CIPHET), Ludhiana and (ii) Study to determine Post harvest losses of Agri Produce in India in 2022 with reference year 2020-22 through NABARD Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd. (NABCONS) for estimating  harvest and post-harvest losses from time to time for various agri-produces in the country. The details of estimated loss of various agri-produces resulted out of the studies are provided at Annexure-II. One of the reasons for these post-harvest losses  of  agri-produces  as  brought  out  in  these  studies  has  been  due  to  lack  of  infrastructure facilities.  For  addressing  these  infrastructure  shortfall,  MoFPI  has  been  implementing  three schemes namely, (i) Central Sector umbrella scheme- Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY),  (ii)  Centrally  Sponsored  scheme-  PM  Formalization  of  Micro  Food  Processing Enterprises (PMFME) and (iii) Central Sector scheme- Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Food Processing Industry(PLISFPI).

As on 31.12.2025, under PMKSY, 1607 projects have been approved. Out of these, 1196 projects have  been  completed  and  operationalized  thereby  creating  total  processing  and preservation capacity of 274.81 lakh MT/ annum, generating 4,69,403 number of  employment and benefitting 36,10,782 farmers. Under PMFME scheme, 1,72,707 loans have been sanctioned with the approved subsidy component of ₹5009.67 crore; seed capital support of Rs. 1282.99 crore has been sanctioned for 3,76,326 Self Help Group (SHG) members. Under PLISFPI scheme, 165 applications  have  been  approved  with  beneficiaries  reporting  investment  of  ₹9,207  crore  and receiving incentive of ₹ 2627.214 crore thereby creating a processing and preservation capacity of 34.00 lakh MT / annum and generating 3,29,000 number of employment against the target of 2,50,000 by 2026-27. Further, due to various interventions, a decline in post-harvest losses for the period from 2015 to 2021 was observed in 42 commodities against the 45 commodities taken for the study which led to savings of ₹ 20,440.58 crore/ annum since 2021 onwards.

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## ANNEXURE-I  REFERRED  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (a)  &  (b)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4527 ANSWERED ON 19.03.2026 REGARDING 'COLD STORAGE AND TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES'

State-wise Cold Storage facilities created as on 31.01.2025 in the country

| Sr. No.   | State/UT                  |   No. of project |   Cold Storage created (Capacity 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  REFERRED  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (c)  OF  THE  LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4527 ANSWERED ON 19.03.2026 REGARDING 'COLD STORAGE AND TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES'

## Details of estimated post-harvest losses of major crops and commodities

| Crops/ Commodities       | Estimated Loss (%)               | Estimated Loss (%)            |
|--------------------------|----------------------------------|-------------------------------|
|                          | As per ICAR-CIPHET Study (2015)* | As per NABCONS study (2022)** |
| Cereals                  | 4.65 - 5.99                      | 3.89-5.92                     |
| Pulses                   | 6.36 - 8.41                      | 5.65-6.74                     |
| Oil Seeds                | 3.08 - 9.96                      | 2.87-7.51                     |
| Fruits                   | 6.70-15.88                       | 6.02-15.05                    |
| Vegetables               | 4.58-12.44                       | 4.87-11.61                    |
| Plantation Crops &Spices | 1.18-7.89                        | 1.29-7.33                     |
| Milk                     | 0.92                             | 0.87                          |
| Fisheries (Inland)       | 5.23                             | 4.86                          |
| Fisheries (Marine)       | 10.52                            | 8.76                          |
| Meat                     | 2.71                             | 2.34                          |
| Poultry                  | 6.74                             | 5.63                          |
| Egg                      | 7.19                             | 6.03                          |

Source: *Report on Assessment of Quantitative Harvest and Post-Harvest Losses of Major Crops and commodities in India, 2015. **NABCONS Study 2022

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