In next 4-5 years Rs 2.1 billion (€26.9 million) will be invested in setting up or upgrading cold storages to address the problem of stockpiling of perishable commodities. There has been an urgent need to upgrade existing cold storage plant and machinery, and technology. An under-developed food processing value chain is another issue that needs to be resolved.

Currently 68 per cent of the existing cold storage capacity is used for storing potato and yet farmers are not getting the right price. The situation in other commodities no better.

Crisil Research has estimated that investment of Rs 1.6 - 2.1 billion is being lined up in the sector between 2019 and 2023 for optimising the domestic post-harvest value chain and to feed the downstream food processing industry.

According to Crisil Research director Hetal Gandhi, fresh investment was expected from private players, while the government typically supported the sector through subsidies. For instance, the unio ministry of food processing offered subsidy at 50 per cent of the project cost.