The ministry of food processing industries has accorded final approval to 38 Mega Food Parks and in-principle approval to three Mega Food Parks in the country. Out of these, 22 Mega Food Park projects have been made operational and 19 projects are under various stages of implementation, Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

Each Mega Food Park involves an average total project cost of Rs 110.92 crore in setting up the Park and the cost includes $5,54,988 as foreign investment. 

Mega Food Park scheme

• The ministry of food processing industries has been implementing Mega Food Park Scheme (MFPS) to create modern infrastructure for the food processing industries since 2008. 

• This scheme is now a component of the new Central Sector Umbrella Scheme – Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY).

• The scheme aims to provide a mechanism to bring together farmers, processors and retailers and link agriculture production to the market so as to ensure maximisation of value addition, minimisation of wastages and improving farmers’ income. 

• The primary objective of the scheme is to provide modern infrastructure facilities for the food processing along the value chain from the farm to the market with a cluster based approach based on a hub and spokes model.

• It includes creation of infrastructure for primary processing and storage near the farm in the form of Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) and Collection Centres (CCs) and common facilities and enabling infrastructure like roads, electricity, water, Effluent Treatment Plant facilities, etc at Central Processing Centre (CPC). 

• These PPCs and CCs act as aggregation and storage points to feed raw material to the food processing units located in the CPC.

• Under the scheme, the Centre provides financial assistance up to Rs 50 crore per Mega Food Park project.

• The scheme is implemented by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which is a Body Corporate registered under the Companies Act.

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana

• With a view to augment private investment to food processing sector, the ministry of food processing industries has been implementing a number of schemes for creation of infrastructure, expansion of processing capacity, and other supporting measures for healthy growth of the food processing industry. 

• All these schemes integrated under an umbrella — Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) and launched on May 3, 2017 to give necessary thrust for accelerated growth of the sector.

• PMKSY is a comprehensive package resulting in creation of modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to retail outlet.

It will help in:

• Providing better returns to farmers.

• Creating huge employment opportunities especially in the rural areas.

• Reducing wastage of agricultural produce

• Increasing the processing level.

• Enhancing the export of processed foods.

Schemes implemented under PM Kisan Sampada Yojana are:

• Mega Food Parks

• Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure

• Creation/Expansion of Food Processing & Preservation Capacities (Unit Scheme)

• Infrastructure for Agro-Processing Clusters

• Creation of Backward and Forward Linkages

• Food Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure

• Human Resources and Institutions

• Operation Greens

So far following 22 Mega Food Parks are operational:

1. Srini Mega Food Park, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh

2. Godavari Mega Aqua Park, West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh

3. North East Mega Food Park, Nalbari, Assam

4. Indus Best Mega Food Park, Raipur, Chhattisgarh

5. Gujarat Agro Mega Food Park, Surat, Gujarat

6. Cremica Mega Food park, Una, Himachal Pradesh

7. Integrated Mega Food Park, Tumkur, Karnataka

8. Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) Mega Food Park, Palakkad, Kerala

9. Indus Mega Food Park, Khargone, Madhya Pradesh

10. Avantee Mega Food Park, Dewas, Madhya Pradesh

11. Paithan Mega Food Park, Aurangabad, Maharashtra

12. Satara Mega Food Park, Satara, Maharashtra

13. Zoram Mega Food Park, Kolasib, Mizoram

14. MITS Mega Food Park, Rayagada, Odisha

15. International Mega Food Park, Fazilka, Punjab

16. Sukhjit Mega Food Park, Kapurthala, Punjab

17. Greentech Mega Food park, Ajmer, Rajasthan

18. Smart Agro Mega Food Park, Nizamabad, Telangana

19. Tripura Mega Food Park, West Tripura, Tripura

20. Patanjali Food and Herbal Park, Haridwar, Uttarakhand

21. Himalayan Mega Food Park, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand

22. Jangipur Bengal Mega Food Park, Murshidabad, West Bengal.

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