Centre announces scheme to upgrade & set up 2 lakh micro food processing enterprises

New Delhi, July 23: The Centre on Friday announce a scheme for upgradation and setting up of 2 lakh micro food processing enterprises under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Initiative.

Under the scheme, the enterprises can be set up or upgraded through credit linked subsidy during five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs. 10,000 crores, Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Shri Prahlad Singh Patel informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

His Ministry, Prahlad said, has been implementing Central Sector Umbrella Scheme – Pradhan MantriKisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY) since 2016-17 for overall growth and development of food processing sector, including processing of agro- products and thus increasing the income of the farmers.

So far, the Ministry has approved 41 mega food parks, 353 cold chain projects, 63 agro processing clusters, 292 food processing units, 63 creation of backward & forward linkages projects & 6 operation green projects across the country under corresponding component schemes of PMKSY.

These sanctioned projects are estimated to benefit about 34 lakh farmers on completion. In the evaluation study of Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure Scheme conducted by M/s NABARD Consultancy Limited (NABCONS) in Year 2020, it has been estimated that captive projects under the scheme have resulted in increase in farm-gate prices by 12.38 % and each project is estimated to benefit more than 9500 farmers, the minister said.