Badakhshan gardeners seek standard cold stores to preserve products

FAIZABAD (Pajhwok): Some gardeners in northeastern Badakhshan province have complained about the shortage of standard cold stores for the protection of their yield and asked the government to address their problem by constructing cold stores.

Sayed Ibrar, a resident of Baharak district, has a 300-tree apple garden and said currently he sold seven kilograms of apples for 100 afs and with this income he could not afford the financial needs of his 10-member family.

Expressing his concerns, he said: “Currently, we do not have any access to standard cold storage to keep our products healthy, and if the government creates a standard cold storage for us, we can get more benefits from our products.” Qari Ihsanullah Seraji, agriculture affairs director of the Agriculture Department, said 283 below-the-standard cold stores have been created through the NHLP project in Badakhshan.

He added: “The goal of farmers and gardeners is standard and active cold stores that can create favorable conditions for the storage of agricultural products, the source of electricity and energy, which, unfortunately, such cold stores have not yet been built in Badakhshan.”

He added the demands of the farmers regarding the provision of active and standard cold storages have been shared with the Ministry of Agriculture and there are high hopes that it will be taken into account.

He said: “A delegation from the Department of Infrastructure of the Ministry of Agriculture visited Badakhshan last month, and in cooperation with the provincial government, we established a suitable place for the construction of a standard and active cold store that can make the conditions favorable for the storage of agricultural products through electricity and energy”.

A standard cold storage facility with a storage capacity of 1,500 metric tons of fruits and vegetables is going to be built in Badakhshan province, and the Chinese government has shown interest in paying for this project.

This is comes that every year at the end of the cold season and the arrival of the spring season, the price of vegetables and fruits increases dramatically in the markets of Badakhshan.

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