State to set up fruit ripening chambers in five districts

Kolkata: The Food Processing Industries and Horticulture department (FPI&H) is setting up ripening chambers in five districts to prevent wastage of fruits, particularly mangoes, due to sudden storm or other factors.

The move assumes significance in the backdrop of 25 to 30 per cent of fruits and vegetables getting wasted post harvest due to improper storage and transportation.

“Bengal mangoes are cherished across the world. However, every year due to storms a reasonable quantity of mangoes get wasted. Now, the weather forecast system has become strong enough to predict a storm or similar natural calamity. Hence, if we have ripening chambers we can pluck the fruits in advance and store them in such chambers. This will ensure that the farmers can sell or export their produce and do not incur losses,” state FPI&H minister Arup Roy said . The ripening chambers will come up in Nadia, South 24-Parganas, Howrah, Murshidabad and Malda. The FPI&H department has received Rs 20 crore under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) scheme and a part of this fund will be utilized for setting up these chambers.

The Information Technology and Electronics (IT&E) department is working on using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence ( AI) for cutting down wastage of mangoes due to storms or attack by insects. It has coordinated with the FPI&H department for the same.

“We began talks with IIT Kharagpur on using Machine Learning and AI for developing a system using different databases of weather forecasts as well as soil health card and pesticide usage so that we can pluck mangoes in advance and prevent wastage,” an IT department official said.