AgroFossilFree - GIS based infrastructure planning of Cold Storages for Crop Preservation: a case study of Kolar District, Karnataka

Γενική περιγραφή

Infrastructure plays a vital role in the growth, performance, and alleviating poverty of a country. India is the second-largest producer of agriculture, requires proper infrastructure like roads, storage facilities, etc. which makes the development, location, and the number of cold storages vital in reducing the expenditure for the farmers as well as ensuring food security. Kolar district, situated in the South-eastern part of Karnataka is a leading producer of fruits and vegetables and faces a shortage of proper infrastructure for agriculture. An attempt is done to use geospatial technologies for analyzing the existing cold storage facilities in the district. The study reveals that the district faces a severe shortage of cold storage and is not evenly distributed which makes the farmer travel long distances to the nearest such facility. The spatial clustering-based approach is used to propose locations for new cold storage facilities. The study reveals that the study area requires a total of 50 new cold storage distributed throughout the district and proposed cold storage facilities will reduce the maximum distance to the nearest cold storage from 50.97 km to 13.98 km.