37 Mega Food Parks Coming Up In 23 Sates Including Odisha: Minister

New Delhi: The Ministry of Food Processing Industries has accorded final approval to 37 Mega Food Park Scheme (MFPS) in 23 States/UTs which are under various stages of implementation. Out of this, 19 MFPs are already operational.

Stating this in a written reply in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Rameswar Teli said as per the scheme guidelines, each fully operational mega food park will provide direct/indirect employment to about 5000 persons.

The scheme aims at providing modern infrastructure facilities for the food processing along the value chain from the farm to the market. It will include creation of infrastructure near farm, transportation, logistics and centralised processing centres (CPCs).

The scheme provides for a capital grant at the rate of 50% of the project cost (excluding land cost) in general areas and at the rate of 75% of the project cost (excluding land cost) in difficult and hilly areas subject to a maximum of Rs. 50 crore per project.

The requirement of land for establishing the CPC is minimum 50 acre either by purchase or on lease of at least 75 years.

Key Project Components

• Enabling Basic Infrastructure –Internal Roads, drainage, water supply, electricity supply including captive power plant, ETP & STP, weighbridges etc.
• Core Processing –Sorting & grading, packaging, warehouses & Specialized storage, Pre-cooling and Ripening chambers, IQF, Cold chain infrastructure, Steam generation, QC Lab etc.
• Standard Design Facility Sheds for Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) – plug and play facility for small units.
• Non-Core Infrastructure – Admin buildings, training centres, canteen, workers’ hostel, trade/display centre etc.

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