Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said here on Tuesday that the present state government has successfully doubled the Controlled Atmosphere (CA) storage capacity of HPMC (Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation) during the past two years in the northern state.
The total CA storage capacity has been increased to 8260 MT across 7 CA stores from 3380 MT before 2023 in the state, he added.
“With this initiative, thousands of families associated with the horticulture sector were getting benefitted and now they were getting better prices for their produce during the off season. This shows the commitment of the present state government towards ensuring the welfare of horticulturists and farmers in the state,” said the Chief Minister.
He said that HPMC has expanded its infrastructure to support agricultural produce.
The capacity of the Gumma CA store has been increased to 2017 MT from 640 MT, while the Jarol-Tikker CA store now holds 2062 MT, up from 640 MT, he said, adding that similarly, the Rohru CA store capacity has been enhanced to 2031 MT from 700 MT.
Apart from this, new CA stores have been established at Reckong Peo with a capacity of 250 MT and Chachyot with 500 MT to facilitate the farmers, he added.
To further support horticulturists and farmers, the government has also reduced CA booking rates from Rs 2 per kg per month to Rs 1.60 per kg per month, which was providing significant financial relief to the farming community, said the Chief Minister.
“Our Government has taken several measures over the past two years to ensure the well-being of farmers. We have introduced the universal carton and increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of apples from Rs 10 to Rs 12 per kg being procured under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS). Additionally, we have reinstated the subsidy on pesticides which was discontinued during the previous BJP regime, besides clearing Rs 150 crore of pending payments to apple growers under the MIS,” said the Chief Minister.
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