Why in News?

• Union Minister of Food Processing Industries today inaugurated the first Mega Food Park in Telangana promoted by M/s Smart Agro Food Park Pvt. Ltd. at Village Lakkampally, Nandipet Mandal of Nizamabad District, Telangana state.

Mega Food Park:

• The Mega Food Park will leverage an additional investment of about Rs. 250 crores in 22 food processing units in the park and generate a turnover of about Rs. 14000 crores.
• The Park will also provide direct and indirect employment to 50,000 youth and benefit about 1 lakh farmers.
• Mega Food parks shall facilitate doubling of farmer’s income by 2022 which is a primary agenda of Govt in the field of agriculture.
• Telangana government also providing financial support to farmers, ultimately farmers will be benefitted.

Significance:

• Mega Food Parks shall further complement the Govt’s scheme by reducing post-harvest losses and hedging the farmer’s risk.
• Mega Food Park shall provide gainful employment to women and hence help support their livelihood.
• The Mega Food Park Scheme is being implemented in order to give a major impetus by adding value and reducing food wastage at each stage of the supply chain with particular focus on perishables.
• Mega Food Parks create modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market with strong forward and backward linkages through a cluster-based approach.
• Common facilities and enabling infrastructure are created at Central Processing Centre and facilities for primary processing and storage is created near the farm in the form of Primary Processing Centers (PPCs) and Collection Centers (CCs).
• Under the Scheme, Government of India provides financial assistance upto Rs. 50.00 Crore per Mega Food Park project.

The Smart Agro Mega Food Park:

• It will benefit the people of Nizamabad District and the people of nearby Districts of Nirmal, Jagtial, RajannaSircilla Kamareddy of Telangana &Nanded district of Maharashtra state.
• This Mega Food Park has been set up in 78 acres of land at a cost of Rs. 108.95 crore.
• The facilities being created by the developer at Central Processing Centre (CPC) of this Mega Food Park include
  • Raw Material Warehouse of 5000 MT,
  • Finished Good Warehouse- 5000 MT,
  • Multi Commodity Cold Storage-5000 MT,
  • Deep Freeze Store-500 MT,
  • Turmeric-Curcumin,
  • Oleoresin Extraction unit-5 MT/Day,
  • QC Laboratory and other related food processing facilities.
• The Park also has a common administrative building for office and other uses by the entrepreneurs and 3 PPCs at Medak, Gouraram and Nandipet having facilities for primary processing and storage near the farms.
• The modern infrastructure for food processing created at Park will benefit the farmers, growers, processors and consumers of Telangana and adjoining areas.