India Must Strengthen Cold Chain to Preserve Agricultural Value: Panigrahi
New Delhi, Sept 10 (TNT): India needs to strengthen its cold chain and warehousing infrastructure to reduce food wastage, preserve agricultural value and improve farmer incomes, BJP MP and Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing member Sukanta Kumar Panigrahi said on Thursday.
Addressing the ASSOCHAM Cold Chain and Warehousing Summit on “Building Ecosystem for Viksit Bharat” here, Panigrahi said India was producing enough but needed to focus on preserving its agricultural output.
“India produces enough. Now, India must preserve enough,” he said, stressing the importance of managing time and temperature across the supply chain.
He said cold chain should not be viewed merely as logistics infrastructure but as an income chain for farmers, as the ultimate return on investment was the value preserved.
Panigrahi called for an integrated ecosystem connecting farms with markets, farmers with consumers and production with processing, while linking Indian supply chains with global markets.
Saandip Wadhwa, Chairman, National Council on Logistics and Warehousing, ASSOCHAM, and Group Director, JM Baxi Group, said warehousing and cold chain infrastructure had become strategic enablers of economic growth, food security, farmer incomes, exports and industrial competitiveness.
He said the next phase of infrastructure development should focus not only on creating capacity but also on improving connectivity.
Sanjay Bajpai, Industry Veteran and Advisor, National Council on Logistics and Warehousing, ASSOCHAM, and former Executive Director, CONCOR, said supply chains were increasingly becoming “trust chains”, making standardisation, quality preservation and resilience essential.
Mata Prasad, DGM – ABU and GSS, State Bank of India, said cold chain infrastructure offered opportunities to connect agriculture, food processing and logistics exports.
He said SBI could finance cold storage, plant and machinery, working capital and other requirements based on the nature of the activity and cash-flow profile.
Dr Devendra Kumar Dhodawat, former Additional Chief Secretary to the Governor of Kerala and member, Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority, said India recorded foodgrain production of around 358 million tonnes in 2024-25, while horticulture production stood at around 371 million tonnes.
He called for expansion of integrated, efficient and sustainable cold chain infrastructure to support the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision.
Amrit Lal Meena, former Chief Secretary, Bihar, and former Special Secretary (Logistics), DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce, called for industrial townships, warehousing and multimodal logistics parks, including smaller logistics parks, to be planned around trunk infrastructure, railway lines and highways.
The summit also saw the release of the ASSOCHAM-ASCELA Knowledge Report and featured panel discussions on future-ready warehousing and cold chain infrastructure, sustainable cold chains for global markets, and multimodal logistics.
CONCOR Chairman and Managing Director Ajit Kumar Panda also addressed the summit.
TNT KM
