The centre is initiating measures to help farmers cut their post-harvest losses, which on an average range from 10 to 30 per cent in fruits and vegetables and 8-10 per cent in respect of pulses.

Minister of state for agriculture Kanti Lal Bhuria said, though post harvest management technology is available in certain sectors, the supply chain inefficiency and inadequate infrastructure are the main causes for such wastages.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, Bhuria said the government has launched several schemes which involves component to check wastage as under:

" For horticulture crops, the government has launched two centrally sponsored schemes. In 2001-02 it launched ''''the technology mission for integrated development of horticulture in the north eastern states and Sikkim'''', which was also extended to the Himalayan states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand during 2003-04.  

''''The national horticulture mission'''' has been launched during 2005-06 for the remaining states. Both the schemes provide assistance for creating post-harvest infrastructure, including cold storage facilities as back-ended subsidy at 33.33 per cent of the project cost with a ceiling of Rs60 lakh per unit for hilly and tribal areas and 25 per cent of the project cost not exceeding Rs50 lakh per unit for other states.

During 2006-07, a new component was introduced under the national horticulture mission to facilitate setting up of modern terminal markets in the country, which envisage state-of-the-art cold chains and other infrastructure to will help in establishing an efficient supply chain right from the farm gate to the consumer/processor/exporter.

" The National Horticulture Board (NHB) is also implementing programmes aimed at reducing the losses of horticulture produce through the schemes ''''capital investment subsidy for construction / expansion / modernization of cold storage / storages for horticulture produce'''' with the same norms and ''''development of commercial horticulture through production and post-harvest management'''' providing back ended subsidy of 20 per cent of the total project cost with a maximum limit of Rs30 lakh for the north-eastern / hilly / tribal areas states and Rs25 lakh for other states.

" The ministry of agriculture is also implementing a capital investment subsidy scheme, titled Gramin Bhandaran Yojana for construction and renovation of rural godowns in the country through the directorate of marketing and inspection. One of the objectives of the scheme is to provide scientific storage near the production centres (excluding municipal corporation areas) in order to reduce the losses.

" A central sector scheme, called ''''development / strengthening of agricultural marketing infrastructure, grading and standardization'''' was also been launched by the ministry of agriculture in 2004 to facilitate development of marketing infrastructure, market user common facilities, infrastructure for direct marketing of agricultural commodities, infrastructure for e-trading, market intelligence etc. and mobile infrastructure for post harvest operations (excluding transport equipment) by providing credit-linked back-ended capital investment subsidy to entrepreneurs and direct assistance to state agencies.