Cold comfort

“From now on, this will be the procurement point for the farmers of Punjab as we have been permitted by the state government to have a bilateral agreement,” says Rohtash Mal, CEO, FieldFresh Foods (P) Ltd. “We have entered into a farming contract with about 80 farmers in the s tate, have provided them the technology and will pick up their crop.”

So Simratpal Singh, a farmer from Sharakpur village near Nakodar, earned, “Rs 150,000 per acre” last year growing babycorn for FieldFresh, and is trying out beans this year. With four-and-a-half acres under babycorn, Singh got a yield of 28 quintals per acre and says, “This is a good option to paddy. It can be grown all year, except between October and January. It’s a 60-day crop and can be easily squeezed into the normal cropping pattern.”

“We are very bullish and buoyed by the fact that we have already exported 110 tonnes of vegetables, including babycorn, sugar snaps, beans, carrots and ladyfingers in the past few months,” says Mal, adding, however, that “we will buy only the vegetables that we need for export.”

The FieldFresh pack house has been set up in consultation with the Netherlands, while the machinery has been imported from New Zealand and refrigeration is Indian. “It has three chambers that have zones of multiple temperatures. So different vegetables can be stored simultaneously. The three packaging lines too have the capacity to handle different kinds of products at the same time,” says Mal. “It’s equipped with pre-cooling chambers, cold-storage facility and equipment for sorting, grading and handling of produce. It can handle 16 tonnes of vegetables per hour and has a cold-storage capacity of 500 tonnes.”

The company is now planning to open more pack houses in Punjab and other parts of the country, even as the Punjab Mandi Board is in the process of setting up three similar facilities in Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar. Says Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, Chairman, PMB: “The work on the Ludhiana poly house is under way.” Adds B.S. Sidhu, Director, Agriculture, Punjab: “Naamdhari Seeds has also approached us for setting up a similar poly house but it’s still at the proposal stage.”

Despite the optimism, there is a smattering of discontent among the farmers. “We have been told that FieldFresh is revising its rates. From Rs 9.50 per kg of babycorn, they are cutting it down to Rs 7.50 per kg. The new cost is not viable for the crop, which is very labour intensive. During summers, when the humidity is high, it is difficult to find the labour. Besides, the input costs are rising. In fact, the company should consider picking up the produce from the farmers’ doorstep,” suggests Simratpal Singh.

Packed House

•The fresh produce packaging facility is spread over 50,000 sq ft.

•The cold storage has a 500 tonnes capacity with three temperature zones.

•It can handle 16 tonnes of fresh produce per hour and five different product lines simultaneously.

•It’s the first fresh produce pack house in India to have hydro-cooling and forced cooling facility.