New PM Kisan projects to leverage investment worth Rs406 crore

These projects will provide direct and indirect employment for approximately 15,000 persons along with employment opportunities in rural areas. The introduction of modern processing techniques for food will result in improved shelf-life of agricultural produce and ensure steady revenue to farmers. 

The projects were accorded approval at a meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Approval Committee (IMAC) held under the chairpersonship of union minister of food processing industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal in New Delhi on Thursday. 

Food processing has an important role to play in linking Indian farmers to consumers in the domestic and international markets. The ministry of food processing industries (MoFPI) has approved proposals for joint ventures, foreign collaborations, industrial licenses, and 100 per cent export oriented units in the food processing sector.

The objective is creation of processing and preservation capacities and modernisation and expansion of existing food processing units with a view to increasing the level of processing, value addition leading to reduction of wastage. The processing activities undertaken by the individual units covers a wide range of post-harvest processes resulting in value addition and/or enhancing shelf life with specialised facilities required for preservation of perishables.   

The food sector has emerged as a high-profit, high-growth sector due to its immense potential for value addition. The food processing industry has recorded compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 8 per cent over the last five years. 

The projects approved are running across quadrilaterals of the country covering over 100 agro-climatic zones.  The Processed food market is expected to grow to $543 billion by 2020 from $322 billion in 2016, at a CAGR of 14.6 percent.

MoFPI is implementing PMKSY with a total outlay of Rs6,000 crore for 2016-20. The schemes being implemented include mega food parks, integrated cold chain and value addition infrastructure, Infrastructure for agro-processing clusters, creation of backward and forward linkages, creation/expansion of food processing and preservation capacities, food safety and quality assurance infrastructure, and human resources and institutions.