A delegation from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has visited a farmers' mini cold storage of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka.

On Tuesday, 28 July, the delegation inspected this modern technology for storing farm produce and its operations, and praised it. They felt that small-scale modern storage at farmer level can reduce waste of farm produce and also play a positive role in market management.

The delegation included Dr Catherine Fiedler, South Asia director of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Erin Covert, agricultural attaché at the US Embassy in Dhaka, and Md Tanvir Ahmed, USDA agricultural specialist.

Project officials told the visitors that most fruit and vegetables stored here can be kept fresh for one week to one month. The delegation expressed satisfaction at seeing that the colour, freshness and quality of the produce remained almost unchanged after storage.

Project director Talha Zubair Mashroor briefed the delegation on the project's aims, progress, storage capacity and benefits for farmers. He said a significant amount of farm produce is wasted every year because farmers' fruit and vegetables spoil quickly, and the mini cold storage is reducing that waste and giving farmers the chance to sell at a convenient time.

The project director said the USDA team learned in detail about the storage technology, temperature control system and the way it is run according to farmers' needs. They expressed interest in the potential of such technology and said they want to work with Bangladesh on it.

The project, implemented by DAE, is funded by the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund. Under it, 147 mini cold storages have already been built in different districts of the country.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.