Union Minister for Food processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal inaugurated the first Mega Food Park in Telangana promoted by Smart Agro Food Park at Lakkampally village in Nizamabad district.

Badal said the Mega Food Park will leverage an additional investment of about ₹250 crore in 22 food processing units and generate a turnover of about ₹14,000 crore.

It will also provide 50,000 direct and indirect jobs and benefit about one lakh farmers.

Mega Food parks are aimed at facilitating doubling of farmer’s income by 2022.

The Minister said that Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi is a government initiative in which all small and marginal farmers will get up to ₹6,000.

Mega Food Parks shall further complement the government’s scheme by reducing post harvest losses and hedging the farmer’s risk.

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries is focussing on boosting the food processing industry so that agriculture sector grows exponentially and becomes a major contributor to doubling the farmer’s income and ‘Make In India’ initiative of the government.

Financial assistance

The Mega Food Park Scheme is being implemented in order to give a major impetus to the food processing sector by adding value and reducing food wastage at each stage of the supply chain with particular focus on perishables. The government provides financial assistance up to ₹50 crore per Mega Food Park project.

The Smart Agro Mega Food Park has been set up in 78 acre of land at a cost of ₹108.95 crore.

The facilities in the park include a 5,000-tonne warehouse each for raw materials, finished goods and commodities; 500-tonne deep freeze; Turmeric-Curcumin, Oleoresin Extraction unit of 5 tonnes a day; quality control lab and other related food processing facilities, according to a PIB statement.

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