Processing and storage of food helps in providing better returns to farmers and creating employment opportunities especially in the rural areas, reducing wastage of agricultural produce, increasing the processing level and enhancing exports of processed foods.
Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) was envisaged as a comprehensive package which will result in creation of modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to retail outlet. This was informed by Minister of State for Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) Ravneet Singh in a written reply in Rajya Sabha last week. He said that this scheme will not only provide a big boost to the growth of food processing sector in the country but also improve the capacity of food processing units.
Processing and storage of food helps in providing better returns to farmers and creating employment opportunities especially in the rural areas, reducing wastage of agricultural produce, increasing the processing level and enhancing exports of processed foods.
Standalone cold storages are not supported under PMKSY. Under the Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain & Value Addition Infrastructure a sub-scheme of PMKSY, 6 projects were approved in Telangana in the last five years. These include a dairy unit in Malkajgiri for a total project cost of Rs 77.3 crore; another dairy unit in Hyderabad for Rs 56.8 crore; a fruits and vegetables project in Nalgonda for Rs 36 crore; a meat unit in Sangareddy for Rs 32.7 crore; and one dairy unit each in Nalgonda and Sangareddy for Rs 26 crore and Rs 22.7 crore, respectively.
As informed by the Food Corporation of India under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, in order to upgrade and modernise the storage facilities, the Government approved Action Plan for construction of steel silos on PPP (Public Private Partnership) mode in the country.
Under this plan, silos with capacity of 24.25 LMT at various locations throughout country are under implementation. Out of this, silos with a capacity of 17.75 LMT have been completed and remaining 6.5 LMT are under various stages of development. In addition to these, silos of 5.5 LMT capacity at seven locations have already been constructed and put to in use in 2007-09 under circuit base model.
Under phase –I of Hub & Spoke Model, silos of 10.125 LMT at 14 locations on FCI owned land were awarded and 24.75 LMT at 66 locations on private land have been awarded and are in development stage.
MoFPI has been implementing central sector umbrella scheme – PMKSY since 2016-17 to create post-harvest infrastructure and processing facilities to boost the overall development of the food processing sector including reduction in post-harvest losses.
The component schemes under PMKSY provide credit linked financial assistance (capital subsidy) in the form of grants-in-aid to entrepreneurs for setting up of food processing / preservation infrastructure which, inter-alia, includes cold storages and refrigerated vehicles to minimise post-harvest losses.
As per the Evaluation Study conducted and submitted by Nabard Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd in 2020 on “Impact of Units Implemented under Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure assisted by Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI)”, it was highlighted that due to interventions of the Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure Scheme of Ministry of Food Processing Industries, while all sectors had shown only some decrease in wastages, fruits & vegetables, dairy and fisheries sector had shown significant reduction in wastages. Apart from MoFPI, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has also launched the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) Scheme in July 2020 under the Atmanirbhar Bharat package in order to improve post-harvest infrastructure and create community farming assets. The AIF Scheme facilitates sanction of medium to long term loans by Banks and other lending institutions for the setting up of cold storage facilities, warehouses and processing units, aimed at reducing crop wastage and enhancing value addition.
Billions of $$$…
The market size of food processing sector in India is estimated to reach US$ 1,274 billion in 2027 from US$ 866 billion in 2022, backed by the rise in population, changing lifestyle and food habits due to rising disposable income and urbanisation.
According to the Viksit Bharat@2047 report, India’s food processing sector will grow significantly, reaching US$ 1,500 billion by FY40, US$ 1,900 billion by FY45, and US$ 2,150 billion by FY47.
Food and grocery market in India is the sixth largest in the world. Food processing industry contributes 32 per cent to this food market and is also one of the largest industries in the country, contributing 13 per cent to total export and 6 per cent of industrial investment. The food processing industry, within the registered factory sector, employs about 1.93 million people while the unregistered sector also employs approximately 5.1 million workers.
The employment in food processing units has increased from 17.73 lakh in 2014-15 to 20.68 lakh in 2021-22 as per the latest Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) report.
