Kolkata: Nadia has become the first district in West Bengal to have hybrid solar micro cold storage facility where farmers can store and preserve their agri-horticultural produce. For the want of a storage solution, most small farmers had to sell their produce at very low prices right after the harvest as cold storages can be afforded only by big farmers and middle-men.

It is estimated that more than 30 per cent of the agri-horticulture produce are wasted in the absence of facilities to store and preserve them. The hybrid solar micro cold storage is a project being implemented by a city-based company "Switch ON" with support from GIZ IGEN-RE, under an Indo-German initiative.