Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune – 411 004, Maharashtra.
The present study has evaluated the impact of National Horticulture Board's soft loan scheme (SLS) towards creation of post-harvest infrastructural (PHI) facilities for horticultural crops in Maharashtra with specific focus on assessing trading pattern of grapes in the domestic and export markets. The study is centered on a processingcum-export oriented grape growers’ cooperative society. The study has shown a positive impact of SLS towards development of PHI facilities since such facilities have led to a rise in export trade, productivity levels of crops grown, reducing post-harvest losses and offering more remunerative prices to farmers in the export market visà-vis domestic market. To improve the efficiency of SLS, the study has made some suggestions, which mainly revolve around simplification of loan procedure adopted by the NHB, timely disbursement of loan, financing of the entire comprehensive project rather than the specific components, subsidization of electricity tariffs for the processing units, provision of funds for setting up of R&D unit for quality control, provision of foreign market intelligence, etc. Marking–related constraints clearly underscore the fact that there is a need for the subsidization of shipment of produce as the stocks remain piled up at the suppliers account and are cleared as and when demand arises, which creates considerable lag in the final disposal of grape produce and often raises the export cost of the produce.
