Bihar government to provide litchi farmers with mobile fridges

Bihar is giving its litchi farmers facilities to store, process and transport the succulent fruit with the hope of doubling exports to over 200 tonnes this summer. The state government will provide the farmers with mobile refrigerator vans and cold storage facilities, said APEDA officials. Each van has a five-tonne capacity. Litchi is cultivated in about 60,000 hectares in the country and Bihar contributes 74% of the total produce, mainly from Muzaffarpur district. According to the National Horticulture Board, country’s total litchi production in ‘98-99 was 428.900m tonnes. Due to the absence of adequate cold storage facilities and refrigerated transport, hardly 1% of litchi farmers in Bihar exports their produce. A team of experts from Kolkata suggested setting up pre-cooling and sulphur treatment facilities in existing cold storage plants to prevent waste. It also recommended opening some new cold storage facilities. The Centre is to provide concessions on export and excise duties to litchi products from the export zone. The Bihar government has also sanctioned the provision of 67 acres for a litchi research centre near Muzaffarpur under the litchi export zone programme. The centre would develop and grow new strains of high yield litchi seeds for supply to farmers at subsidised rates.