Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) is implementing Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) for holistic development of horticulture in the country including creation of post harvest management infrastructure to reduce losses of perishable horticulture produce. Post harvest management component includes establishment of setting up of pack house, pre-cooling, primary processing, cold chain, refrigerated transport, ripening chambers etc.
These components are demand & entrepreneur driven for which credit linked back ended subsidy is available through respective State Horticulture Missions. An entrepreneur can avail assistance for establishment of ripening chamber @ 35% of admissible project cost in general areas and @ 50% in hilly and schedule area as credit linked and back ended subsidy. The admissible cost for ripening chamber is Rs. 1.00 lakh per MT limited to maximum of 300 MT capacity. State wise assistance sanctioned under MIDH for establishment of ripening chambers is given below in table.
Capacity building of field staff and farmers is one of the major components of MIDH. State Horticulture Missions are organising regular training programmes and workshops on Post-harvest Management (PHM) including ripening chambers for the benefit of farmers and entrepreneurs. Further, National Centre for Cold-chain Development (NCCD), an autonomous organization under Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare is holding workshops and training programmes in various parts of the country for ripening chamber operators and farmers for awareness and technical information for establishment and running of ripening chambers.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Sudarshan Bhagat in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question.
State wise financial assistance sanctioned for establishment of ripening chambers under MIDH (NHM & NHB) till March 2016
(Rs. In Lakh)
| State | No. of Projects | Assistance sanctioned |
| Andhra Pradesh | 45 | 695.16 |
| Assam | 1 | 25.60 |
| Chhattisgarh | 1 | 19.36 |
| Goa | 2 | 31.00 |
| Gujarat | 52 | 1344.69 |
| Haryana | 11 | 542.32 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 2 | 31.22 |
| Jammu & Kashmir | 2 | 47.11 |
| Jharkhand | 1 | 12.50 |
| Karnataka | 40 | 457.83 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 5 | 171.06 |
| Maharashtra | 73 | 1628.62 |
| Orissa | 4 | 62.00 |
| Punjab | 17 | 669.12 |
| Rajasthan | 25 | 643.07 |
| Tamil Nadu | 14 | 340.27 |
| Telangana | 20 | 496.88 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 34 | 1008.77 |
| Uttarakhand | 1 | 24.00 |
| West Bengal | 1 | 30.00 |
| Total | 351 | 8280.58 |