Not too long ago, ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana- PMKSY’ by the Inter-Ministerial Approval Committee (IMAC) constituted under the chairmanship of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries- MoFPI Under 32 new initiatives have been permitted.
Main point for Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana
Around 406 crore rupees will be invested in 17 states under these tasks.
Objectives of the projects:
Generation of 15 thousand direct and indirect jobs under projects, increase in employment opportunities in rural areas, introduction of modern processing techniques to increase the shelf-life of agricultural produce, stabilizing farmers income etc.
Importance of Food Processing:
- Food processing plays an important role in connecting Indian farmers with consumers in domestic and international markets.
- Food processing industry refers to activities in which primary agricultural products are processed and added to. For example, dairy products, processing of milk, fruits and vegetables, packaged meals and beverages are under the food processing industry.
- Food processing industry can strengthen the Indian economy by acting as a link between farmers, government and unemployed youth.
- India is the second largest producer of meals items after China, with big population and rising economic prosperity, India has a big market for food processing industries.
- Food processing in India can also be completed at relatively low price because of presence of low-cost labor drive. This will benefit India in world trade.
Challenges before the industry:
- India lacks basic infrastructure. Neither the National Highways nor the Dedicated Freight Hall in India have such a strong position that the farmers current in each part of the nation can be associated with the shop owners.
- Currently this industry is ruled by varied state level and central laws, because of which there is lack of clarity within the laws associated to the industry.
- India lacks uniformity in laboratories and testing standards with modern know-how for testing of food items.
- There is a lack of research and development in the area of food processing, because of which neither innovation nor environment of awareness will be created on this industry.
Steps taken by the government:
100% foreign direct funding through automatic route in manufacturing of meals products.
Food and agro-based processing units and cold chain infrastructure are classified as agricultural activity for ‘Priority Sector Lending-PSL’.
Fiscal measures like 100% exemption in income tax on revenue of new meals processing units.
PMKSY
Purpose of the scheme:
- The main goal of this scheme is to build meals processing and preservation capabilities, increase the level of processing for worth addition, reduction of food wastage and modernization and expansion of existing meals processing units.
- The activities of individual processing models include various post-harvest processes equivalent to value addition, facilities like increasing the shelf life of the product, conservation work and so on.
Scheme Provisions:
The MoFPI Ministry is implementing the PMKSY scheme whose implementation period is 2016-2020 and the total outlay amount is Rs 6,000 crore.
The scheme has seven component plans –
1. Mega Food Park
2. Integrated chilly chain and value addition infrastructure
3. Infrastructure for Agro-Processing Clusters
4. Construction of backward and forward linkage
5. Building / increasing meals processing and preservation capacity
6. Meals Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure
7. Human Resources and Institutions
Agro processing cluster:
- It connects Farmer Producer Organizations- FPOs to markets through a modern basic infrastructure supply chain.
- Cluster based system reduces the cost and will increase the revenue, as different models in the cluster be part of together to save transportation price, labor cost and time.
Possibilities in the industry:
- Food processing industry has emerged as an space of high growth and excessive revenue due to the immense potential and potential of value addition in India.
- With the development of food processing industries, large investors will be involved on this sector and the development of contract based farming will likely be possible, which will solve the agricultural problems in India.