Odisha Charts Expansion of Cold Storage Infrastructure to Boost Farm Incomes and Exports

Bhubaneswar: To strengthen Odisha’s agricultural value chain, a high-level meeting was held today at Lok Seva Bhawan under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo to discuss the expansion of cold storage infrastructure across the state.

Chairing the meeting in his dual capacity as Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Agriculture, Farmers’ Empowerment, and Energy, Singh Deo underscored the importance of cold storage facilities in ensuring year-round food availability, employment generation, and increased income for farmers. He noted that Odisha, once a food-deficient state, has now emerged as a food-surplus state with increasing exports of food grains, vegetables, and indigenous aromatic rice varieties to international markets.

“Odisha’s rich natural resources, strong agricultural base, and growing maritime transport network position us well to become a major agro-export hub,” Singh Deo said. “But to protect surplus produce, eliminate artificial shortages, and guarantee farmers a fair price, we must invest heavily in cold storage infrastructure.”

He further announced that the state government is already in the process of constructing cold storage units in every sub-division to facilitate farm-to-market linkages, reduce post-harvest losses, and help stabilize prices of perishable items.

During the meeting, a private company presented a proposal to support the construction and operation of cold storage units in various parts of the state. Officials discussed the technical and logistical feasibility of the proposal, along with potential public-private partnership (PPP) models.

Director of Agriculture Shubham Saxena and other senior officials attended the meeting and shared insights into the current status and roadmap for Odisha’s cold storage network.