37 Mega Food Parks in 23 States/UTs Approved

Mega Food Park Scheme (MFPS) is being implemented by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries. The scheme has been creating modern infrastructure for the food processing industries since 2008. A Total of 42 food parks have been planned, and 37 Mega Food Parks have recently been approved out of which 19 are already operational.

About Mega Food Park Scheme

• It is a scheme of the Ministry of Food Processing that establishes a “direct linkage from farm to processing and then to consumer markets”.
• The scheme has been made a component of the new Central Sector Umbrella Scheme– Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY).
• MFPS is aimed at providing modern infrastructure facilities for food processing besides providing the value chain from farm to market.
• Fully operational Mega Food Park is going to provide employment to 5000 persons directly or indirectly.
• It will create infrastructure near the collection centres, Centralised processing centres, Primary Processing centres, transportation and logistics.
• Creation of infrastructure will further reduce wastage and create an efficient supply chain with collection centres, primary processing centres and logistic infrastructure working at the back end.

Salient Features

1. 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.
2. The scheme will follow a cluster-based approach based on a hub and spokes model by creating infrastructure for primary processing and providing common facilities like roads, electricity, water, Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) etc. at Central Processing Centre (CPC).
3. The scheme will be driven by demand and will facilitate food processing units to meet environmental and safety standards.
4. The project requires minimum of 50 acres land either by purchase or on lease of at least 75 years for establishing the Central Processing Centre of the Mega Food Park.

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY)

The SAMPADA (Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters) scheme was approved in May 2017 which has been renamed as the “Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY)”. It is a central sector scheme that incorporate schemes like Mega Food Parks, Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure etc. under it.  The primary objective of the scheme is to supplement agriculture, modernise its processing and decrease the Agri-Waste.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2020