20 March, Kathmandu. The cold storages (moisture centers) which were started with the aim of reducing production losses in the agricultural sector and providing fair prices to the farmers, have become only a means of draining the state’s funds year after year.

In the last one decade, the government has distributed billions of subsidies to build cold storage, but a large part of it has not been put to good use.

After the federal, state and local governments have adopted a policy of giving a certain percentage of subsidies, the trend of misappropriation of funds by leaving the work in abeyance and planning based on access has caused a great crisis in the agricultural infrastructure.

In some places, the building structures have not been in operation for years, while in some places, the structures dug out of the ground with grants have now turned into bushes.

The 500 ton capacity moisture center built with a joint investment of about 70 million rupees by the Manthali municipality and the state government has been unused for three years.

Although the main structure was ready in July 2080, it has not yet been put into operation under the pretext of inadequate infrastructure such as enclosures and paleghars, toilets.

Out of the 10 cold storages started by the Bagmati state government with an investment of around 80 million rupees, only two are fully operational so far.

Although the remaining seven center structures have been completed, they are stalled due to non-payment of their share by the partner agencies or due to managerial confusion.

This example is only from Bagmati province. This scheme, which was introduced for the benefit of farmers, is the same in all seven provinces. Some are built and useless, some are still under construction.

Now once again the moisture center has come into the limelight. The reason for the discussion is the government’s decision to start the ‘One Municipality, One Moisture Center’ program to improve the storage and marketing of agricultural produce.

The government led by the senior leader of Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RASWPA) Balendra Shah announced 100 works of government reform and has decided to conduct a feasibility study within 10 days to establish a humidification center in public-private partnership in each district.

The previous government had provided customs exemptions and subsidies of up to 70 percent to keep agricultural produce fresh and provide competitive prices in the market.

However, instead of reaching the actual farmers’ groups or communities, this facility has been captured by private organizations and middlemen with access. The Office of the Auditor General has also pointed out that there is extreme negligence in the distribution of grants.

The government machinery does not even have an integrated record of how much cold storage has been invested by the state through which agencies. It is mentioned in the report that the budget has been allocated based on access without analyzing the feasibility and sustainability, but the structure has broken down in many places, but it has not been able to serve the farmers.

In some places, due to the lack of technical know-how to operate cold storage, there are many examples of millions of stored materials rotting and being destroyed.

How many moisture centers are there across the country?

According to the Agriculture Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, the government has started collecting detailed data of large and small moisture centers across the country with the implementation of the ‘One Municipality, One Moisture Center’ policy.

Although the department has so far kept the data of 66 large moisture centers, it has said that there is no integrated description of the small cold rooms built at the local level.

According to the statistics of the department, only 60 out of 66 are operational. That data is also only those who received subsidy from the Electricity Authority and came in contact.

Those cold storages have a capacity of 500 to 16 thousand tons. These also operate at 50 to 60 percent capacity due to insufficient agricultural yield. However, the department does not have the details of small cold rooms with a capacity of 20 to 30 tons built by the state and local levels.

Director General of Agriculture Department, Prakash Sanjel, said that after this topic was included in the government’s 100-day agenda, the department coordinated with all seven provinces and local levels and asked for details.

“According to the instructions of the ministry, we have formed a working group and sent a format about the condition of small and large cold stores at all local levels,” Sanjeel told Online News. “The integrated data will be ready within the next few days.”

Lack of technology and uneven distribution

Looking at the condition of moisture centers built and under construction across the country, the geographical distribution is very unbalanced. Most of the centers are still deprived of storage facilities in the areas which are considered to be the main areas of production.

There is a lot of old technology in the centers that are in operation. Due to the compulsion to keep all types of produce in the same room, the quality of products that require different temperatures has not been maintained.

Although modern ‘multichamber’ technology has been introduced, it is very expensive beyond the reach of small farmers. Due to the irregular supply of electricity required around the clock and high tariffs, the operating costs have increased and the storage charges have also increased, which ultimately affects the farmers.

Although the state has poured billions in the construction of cold storage, it has not been able to develop an integrated system of ‘cold chain’. Due to the lack of wet vehicles to transport goods from the farm to the store and from the store to the market, the quality of the product deteriorates before and after storage.

Taking advantage of this weakness, middlemen buy products from farmers cheaply and store them in stores under their control and sell them at high prices when there is a shortage in the market.

‘One municipality one cold store’ policy is an unreasonable announcement that does not understand the problem of production

On the one hand, due to youth exodus, lack of irrigation and fertilizing, the fertile fields of the villages are becoming barren and turning into forests and bushes.

However, stakeholders say that the attention of the government is not on how to make barren fields green and increase production, but only on building concrete moisture centers.

If the cultivated field is left empty and cold storage is made, it is certain that only vegetables and fruits imported from abroad will be stored in it, not the produce of the farmers.

Agricultural experts say that the government policy of not growing crops in the fields but pouring billions of budget into the construction of moisture centers is only exploiting state resources.

According to Krishna Prasad Paudel, an agricultural expert and activist of the farming campaign for food, the policy of ‘one municipality, one cold store’ announced by the government is unreasonable and based on wrong priorities without understanding the real problems of the agricultural sector.

He called the announcement of building a storage house without doing basic work to increase production immature and impractical.

Poudel commented that this policy of the government has not penetrated to the root of the agricultural problem. According to him, the current major problem in Nepal’s agriculture is lack of production, not storage.

“The government was not clear about what is the main problem of Nepal’s agricultural sector,” he said, “After increasing production and reaching the level where farmers can sell it, it would have been understandable if they had talked about cold stores, but there is no plan to increase production, it is impractical to talk about storage directly.”

He said that the government has forgotten the fact that hundreds of cold stores across the country are unused and in a state of disrepair. “The cold stores built by the local and state governments with crores of investment have become ruins and have not been put into operation,” said Paudel.

He said that the local government is in charge of planning and implementing the development at the local level. He said that it is unnatural for the central government to say that it will do all the work itself except for giving policy instructions.

“Should the work done at the local level be implemented by the local government, or will the Singh Darbar do everything?,” he asked, “This may be a policy announcement, but saying that it will be done in 100 days narrows the role of the local government. It depends on how the local and state governments will ensure its implementation.”

Who is the cold store for?

Poudel pointed out the danger that the new cold store that will be built while Nepal is dependent on agricultural produce will benefit imported goods rather than Nepali farmers.

“We are buying all the agricultural produce from India, starting from green vegetables, I have nothing to say about storing the goods bought from outside,” he commented.

The concept of minimum support price is also flawed

Poudel said that the concept of minimum support price brought by the government is also impractical and centralized. According to him, it is not scientific to set a single price from the center as the cost of production varies in different geographical areas of the country.

‘Is the cost of farming on the land of Kathmandu the same as the cost of farming on the land of Madhes?’, he asked, ‘which method, how much labor and what kind of resources are used determine the cost, this analysis cannot be done sitting in the lion’s palace.’

He suggested that the right to set the minimum support price should be given to the local government based on cost analysis. “This work is to be done by the local government, but it would have been more practical if the center had made a policy decision that ‘the local government should set the support price,'” he said.

Without production and market network, ‘one municipality one cold store’ is ineffective

Agriculture expert Uddhav Adhikari also says that without ensuring the production base, market network and farmers’ trust, the government’s policy of ‘one municipality, one cold store’ cannot be successful.

He argues that the problem will not be solved if only new structures are added without addressing their weaknesses when the hundreds of cold storages built earlier are not effective.

The official said that although the cold storage concept is good, its success will be linked to production, marketing and access to farmers.

“One municipality and one moisture house is good in itself,” he said, “but building a building is not a big deal, production is important. It is necessary to create a reliable environment for the products to reach the moisture center.”

The official emphasized that before building a new cold storage, a serious review should be done as to why the old structures were not effective.

According to him, the main reason for the failure of old cold storages is that they were built in unsuitable locations. Due to the compulsion to build government cold storage on public land, they are often far away from road access and in impractical places for farmers.

In addition, since the private sector operates cold storage facilities near the market and in accessible places, the farmers did not find it necessary to use the government structures, so they remained empty.

In order to make this policy effective, expert officials have suggested to work in an integrated and practical model by learning from past mistakes.

His first suggestion is that the cold storage which has been built but is not in use should be renovated and put into operation.

“If there are structures that are built in places where there is no production and are not working, the government should not hesitate to abolish them,” he said, “and now, when new ones are built, production centers and farmers should be built only in places that are suitable for them.”

Similarly, he argues that it is mandatory to connect the cold storage with the local market. He emphasized on the need to connect the concept of ‘one ward, one agricultural hot market’ with cold storage and build a network to transport the farmers’ produce to the market and the market to the moisture center.

The most important thing is that this program will not be successful if the central government only wants it, he said that strong coordination with the local government is a prerequisite for success.

Officials say that even good programs fail due to the tendency of the government not to discuss enough with farmers’ organizations and stakeholders when making policies.

According to him, the Ministry’s closed room plan cannot understand the real problems of the farmers, so there is a danger that the state’s investment will be like pouring water on the sand.

First priority for non operational

Director General of Agriculture Department, Prakash Sanjel, says that priority will be given to the structures that have been built but could not be put into operation before the construction of new cold storage.

“Our first priority is to bring the non-functioning cold storages into operation,” he said.

According to him, some cold storages have not been able to operate at full capacity, the reason for which will also be studied.

New build only by looking at the requirement and ‘flow’ of production

Sanjel clarified that there is no target of blindly building cold storage in all municipalities. According to him, before building a new moisture center in any place, a detailed study of the production conditions and requirements will be done.

“There is no cold storage at any local level, but there is a need and the ‘flow’ of production is also good. The new construction process will proceed only if there is no production,” he said.

Director General Sanjel informed that the department will prepare the modality of ‘one municipality and one moisture center’ only after data collection and analysis and based on that, the next program will be decided.