The cold storages built in the district are currently empty. Five cold storages in the district, which are made for the storage of agricultural materials, have been locked.
Spiders have set up a web in the store room where the product is to be stored . Four years ago, the construction of the 'Sheet Bhandar' building was completed in Malarani rural municipality-5 Bangi . Ward President Tilak Mishra said that 80 lakh rupees have been invested so far in building construction, installation of moisture equipment, installation of electricity transformer. Even though the building has been built, the work of installing equipment and electricity has not been done yet.
"The winter storage is now empty, this year we have planted 70 quintals of potatoes in Bangi under the potato pocket area program," he said, "we are planning to keep them for testing after the potatoes are produced." We keep oranges after potatoes.' He also said that it will be given to a cooperative or group to operate the store.
He says that even though the building has been built, the work of connecting the equipment has not been completed and it is empty because there is no product to keep. The ward has a plan to keep potatoes after they are produced by March. The locals of Bangi are buying and eating Indian potatoes from Sandhikhark market. Even if infrastructure is built in the village, there is not enough production to keep it. Without study, the rural municipality had built a cold store with a capacity of one hundred tons.
Ratnamare of Ward 6 of Malarani, Khandah and Dandakteri of Ward 3 and 10-10 ton capacity buildings have been constructed. There is no moisture center equipment installed here. Only a building has been constructed in the name of cold storage. Which is stuck . Buildings built for the purpose of keeping local products and selling them during the off-season have not been completed nor are there enough products to store them.
Oranges are produced in Khandah and Hanspur. But according to the capacity, there is not enough production to be kept in the cold storage . On the other hand, the cold store, which Sandhikhark municipality started building with the help of the federal government, is still standing. Since the window is not kept up to the door, it has become a habitat for animals at night.
The construction of a cold store with a capacity of 1,500 tons was started by the municipality four years ago with an investment of 74.45 million federal government to store fruits and food items. In which 50 shares belong to the municipality. Dilip KC, the planning officer of the municipality, informed that 20.3 million has been allocated to the union and 1.5 million to the city this year.
Similarly, oranges were kept for three years at Shivshakti Coldstore located in Panini Rural Municipality-2 Pokharathok. But the Rakhi oranges were wasted there. Last year, out of 90 metric tons kept in store, 60 metric tons of orange seeds got rotted due to mold. This year the farmers did not keep oranges.
25 percent share of Shivshakti mixed farmers group of orange farmers and 25 million investment of Lumbini state government for the construction of cold storage. But now there is also a lock here . Revatiraj Paudel, the president of Shivshakti Group, who was entrusted with the operation, after rotting oranges for three years, another Farmers said that they have decided not to keep oranges until the arrangements are in place.
"The store is now empty," said Chandrakant Poudel, president of Ward 2 Pokharathok, "The technicians of the Lumbini Pradesh Agricultural Development Directorate came and trained and placed oranges in the store last year." Now the directorate is preparing to buy and keep the orange itself, but it backed off in the end.'
Last year, according to the agricultural scientist, he said that even if he stored it, it was not successful. After the farmers did not keep it, Lumbini Province Agricultural Development Directorate Butwal prepared to buy and keep it themselves. Vivek Pant, senior agricultural extension officer of the directorate, said that a decision will be taken after consultation with experts. There is no product to store food items and vegetables other than oranges in the warehouse which has a capacity of 300 metric tons.
