Sudurpashchim Province Struggles to Complete Cold Storage Projects as Farmers Face Losses

Dhangadhi. Farmers in various districts of Sudurpashchim face the annual problem of losing their agricultural produce due to a lack of safe storage facilities.

Ganga Magar from Alital, Dadeldhura, has been commercially farming vegetables for years. She is constantly plagued by one worry: 'How to keep the potatoes I produce safe?'

On one hand, there is the concern of not getting a good price if sold immediately after harvest, and on the other, there is no arrangement for safe storage to sell during the off-season. 'If I could sell when demand is high, I would get a good price,' she said, 'but I cannot keep them preserved until then.'

To solve such problems for farmers, the Sudurpashchim provincial government introduced a plan in 2077 BS to build cold stores and chambers in 13 different locations across the province. Six years after the plan began, 7 centers remain incomplete.

According to Engineer Kosraj Badu, working at the Directorate of Agricultural Development in Doti under the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture, and Cooperatives of Sudurpashchim, contractors are delaying the work despite repeated reminders from the directorate.

'We have completed the construction of 6 out of 13 centers, but the condition of the remaining 7 is not satisfactory. We have written to the contractors of those seven projects 18-19 times. They say they will do the work, but there is no progress in practice,' he told Ratopati.

According to the directorate, construction of 6 centers has been completed so far. This includes a 350-metric-ton capacity cold store in Attariya, Kailali. Similarly, cold chambers have been built in Badimalika, Bajura (25 metric tons), Sanfebagar, Achham (25 metric tons), Chure, Kailali (25 metric tons), Lamkichuha (30 metric tons), and Dodhara-Chandani, Kanchanpur (30 metric tons). Among these, the structures built in Lamkichuha, Chure, Dodhara-Chandani, and Badimalika have been handed over to the local levels, while the handover process is underway for Attariya and Sanfebagar.

Meanwhile, 7 centers remain in a state of neglect. Work on cold chambers being built in Alital Rural Municipality of Dadeldhura, Mahakali Municipality of Darchula, Dasharathchand Municipality of Baitadi, Bhajani Municipality of Kailali, Dipayal Silgadhi and Jorayal Rural Municipality of Doti, and Punarbas Municipality of Kanchanpur has not yet been completed.

Only 25 percent of the work has been done in Mahakali Municipality of Darchula, while the progress in Dipayal Silgadhi is the weakest.

According to Engineer Kosraj Badu, the directorate has now initiated the process to take action against construction companies that are not working. He stated that since contractors have stopped work using various excuses and failed to deliver even after repeated deadline extensions, the process of terminating contracts and blacklisting them has been initiated.

'We are now in the final stage. We will conduct on-site monitoring of all seven sites and prepare a detailed report. We have already issued notices asking why the contracts should not be terminated and why they should not be blacklisted. If their explanation is not satisfactory, we will terminate the contracts and proceed with blacklisting. It is not acceptable to leave a project meant for the benefit of farmers in such a state,' he said.

Although contractors initially cited a lack of budget, the directorate claims it has been managing the budget every year. After the 14th amendment to the Public Procurement Regulations by the Government of Nepal, contractors got another opportunity for a deadline extension. 'After the amendment of the regulations, they applied for an extension, and we extended it hoping the work would be done, but work did not start even after the extension. Now, it is time for action, not for extending deadlines,' said Engineer Badu.

Work is underway to bring the large cold store in Attariya, Kailali, into operation by Ashar 18. According to Engineer Badu, a technical team will be called to complete the remaining work and testing. The plan is to hand over the Attariya center to the agricultural wholesale market instead of the municipality.

Despite the good potential for potato and vegetable production across the province, farmers are suffering due to the lack of cold storage. Farmers in the Terai districts of Kailali and Kanchanpur are even more affected.

Kailali farmer Pahalman Saud said that if there had been a cold storage center, 100 percent of the vegetables he grew could have been saved.

Munni Rana from Dhangadhi said that it is a major failure of the concerned bodies that work which should be finished in a month has not been completed even after years.

'The vegetables produced by the sweat of farmers here are going to waste, and we don't know when the cold storage center that the government promised to build will come into operation,' she said.

The fact that a project planned to be built in a year has not been completed yet is an example of the pace at which development and construction work is happening in Nepal. Even the cold storage centers that have been built have not reached a state where they can operate and provide services.