Food processing industries minister Pashupati Kumar Paras launched three ‘One District One Product’ brands under the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PMFME) scheme.

The ministry of food processing industries has signed an agreement with National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) for developing 10 brands of selected 20 ODOPs under the branding and marketing component of the PMFME scheme.

Out of these, seven ODOP brands and nine products have been launched in collaboration with NAFED. In total, 10 ODOP brands and 14 products have been launched under the scheme.

What is PMFME scheme?

• The Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PMFME) is a centrally sponsored scheme that is designed to address the challenges faced by the micro enterprises and to tap the potential of groups and cooperatives in supporting the upgradation and formalization of these enterprises.

• The scheme envisages an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore over a period of five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25. The expenditure under the scheme would be shared in 60:40 ratio between central and state governments, in 90:10 ratio with northeastern and Himalayan states, 60:40 ratio with UTs with legislature and 100 per cent by the Centre for other UTs.

• Under the scheme, two lakh micro food processing units will be directly assisted with credit linked subsidy. Adequate supportive common infrastructure and institutional architecture will be supported to accelerate growth of the sector.

• The scheme adopts One District One Product (ODOP) approach to reap the benefit of scale in terms of procurement of inputs, availing common services and marketing of products.

• Under the ODOP component of the PMFME scheme, the ministry has approved ODOP for 707 districts, including 137 unique products as per the recommendations received by states/UTs.

What is the scope of this scheme?

• The unorganised food processing sector in the country comprises nearly 25 lakh food processing enterprises which are unregistered and informal. With only 7 per cent of investment in plant & machinery and 3 per cent of outstanding credit, the unorganised enterprises contribute to 74 per cent of employment (a third of which are women), 12 per cent of output and 27 per cent of the value addition in the food processing sector. 

• Nearly 66 per cent of these units are located in rural areas and about 80 per cent of them are family-based enterprises. Most of these units fall under the category of micro manufacturing units in terms of their investment in plant and machinery and turnover.

• Unorganised micro food processing units need intensive hand holding support for skill training, entrepreneurship, technology, credit and marketing, across the value chain, necessitating active participation of the state government for better outreach.

Objectives of the scheme:

1) Increased access to credit by existing micro food processing entrepreneurs, FPOs, Self Help Groups and cooperatives.

2) Integration with organised supply chain by strengthening branding & marketing.

3) Support for transition of existing 2 lakh enterprises into formal framework.

4) Increased access to common services like common processing facilities, laboratories, storage, packaging, marketing and incubation services.

5) Strengthening of institutions, research and training in the food processing sector.

6) Increased access for the enterprises, to professional and technical support.

What is NAFED?

• National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) is an apex organisation of marketing cooperatives for agricultural produce in India. 

• It was established in 1958 under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act. 

• NAFED was founded with the objective to promote the trade of agricultural produce and forest resources across the nation.

• Agricultural farmers are the main members of NAFED.

• The activities of NAFED add to the betterment of agriculture and post harvest of the produce. NAFED procures stocks directly from the farmers in regulated mandis in open auction through the cooperative infrastructure thereby providing them a ready market, fair price and preventing their exploitation at the hands of private traders.

• Also, whenever there is a glut in market due to bumper production when prices tend to crash, NAFED undertakes procurement at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) under the Price Support Scheme in case of 16 notified commodities (pulses, oilseeds, copra, dehusked coconut, cotton) thereby providing remunerative prices to farmers for their produce.

• There are over 900 members in NAFED, represented by chief executives of apex level marketing/consumer cooperative/other national level federations, state level marketing/ tribal/commodity federations and primary cooperative marketing/processing societies.

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