Growth and Interstate Disparities in Cold Storage Infrastructure in India: An Empirical Assessment

Abstract

Considering the importance of the cold storage in the agriculture marketing; the present study attempts to analyse the growth, and examine the interstate distribution of the cold storage in India from 2015 to 2023. The study has used analytical tools like; CAGR, CV, and CR5 for the study. The study found that, the number and capacity of cold storage in India has recorded a CAGR of 2.52 and 2.35 percent respectively, reflecting a moderate growth. However, the growth pattern remains uneven across the states. It is observed that the concentration ratio of top five states is 74.71 percent, which indicates that the cold storage capacity is concentrated mostly in few states. Uttar Pradesh holds the largest share of cold storage capacity, followed by West Bengal, Gujarat, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. These states together hold the maximum proportion of the cold storage infrastructure in the country. The coefficient variation is found to be 237.83 percent, which indicates a considerable interstate disparity in the cold storage infrastructure. Therefore, government initiatives and policy interventions should focus on expanding cold storage facilities evenly.