“44 cold chain projects, 24 food testing labs and Rs 350 crore investment in mega food parks has been done in last two years in order to achieve the target of doubling the food processing in the country,” she informed, while talking to the media on completion of two years of NDA government at the Centre.
The aim is to reduce wastage from the current level of 16% (of perishables), doubling the farmers income and achieving the target of 20% processing, according to her. For that eight mega food parks, six in last two years, have been made operational while five each will be made operational in the next two years and all 37 envisaged mega parks will be made operational by 2019. “Besides, a total of 134 cold chain projects will be implemented in next couple of years,” stated the minister.
A recent study carried out by the Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET) Ludhiana, revealed that a total of Rs 92,000 crore worth of food was wasted every year in the country due to various reasons, post-harvesting.
Hence, according to Badal, the ministry has pushed the 100% FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into multi-brand retail of food produced and manufactured in India as one of the major steps, in which 15% investment will be made at the farm level to reduce the wastage of food. The minister revealed that her ministry would be announcing 100 cold chain projects and a SAMPADA scheme focussing on seamless agri cluster development in the current year to take food processing to the next level.
The government has sanctioned 37 mega food parks out of which eight have been operationalised (6 in two years of NDA tenure vs 2 in 10 years of UPA tenure). Out of 134 cold chain projects sanctioned, 81 have been completed (44 in two years of NDA tenure vs. 37 during UPA tenure). “Through cold chains alone, we have added a capacity of 1.28 lakh metric tonne of cold storages/CA/MA, 53.05 MT per hour of Individual Quick Freeze (IQF), 19 lakh litre per day of milk processing and 240 reefer vans,” stated the minister.
She added that food processing is an employment-intensive sector and to facilitate investments, a single-window facilitation cell has been created to handhold overseas and domestic investors in food processing sector. A food map identifying surplus and deficit areas of various agricultural and horticulture produce in the country has also been made and is available on the website of the ministry.
A special fund of Rs 2,000 crore has been set up in NABARD to make available affordable credit to agro processing units in the designated food parks. This was announced when the government took over in 2014.
The minister announced that her ministry shall be launching a mobile app to provide one-stop information to farmers-entrepreneurs to provide necessary skill sets to them for setting up food processing units. This would be done in collaboration with NIFTEM, which has initiated a programme called Village Adoption.
Briefing about tax incentives the minister said that in the last two years, Excise Duty on machinery for processing has been reduced from 10% to 6%. Pre-Cold Storage services like pre-conditioning, pre-cooling, ripening, waxing, retail packing, labelling of fruits and vegetables have been exempted from Services Tax. Loans to food & agro-based processing units and cold chains have been classified under agriculture activities for Priority Sector Lending subject to aggregate sanctioned limit of Rs 100 crore per borrower.
The ministry has launched an online system to file claims under flagship schemes like Mega Food Parks and Cold Chains to remove human interface and improve transparency. The ministry has also simplified procedures by reducing requirement of documents-affidavits and created Grievance Redressal Mechanism so that promoters are given opportunity of personal hearing.
Since September 2015, 24,084 persons have been trained in the food processing sector under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana while, the minister pointed out that her next target is to create small and medium enterprises in food processing sector all over the country, and to give it a big push she has launched a new scheme ‘Sampada’ to focus on seamless development of agri processing clusters close to the surplus production areas. All these initiatives of the ministry of food processing shall contribute in a big way in doubling farmers’ income and reducing food wastages.
