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Mega challenges ahead for Mega Food Parks scheme
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Tuesday, 05 January, 2016, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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fiogf49gjkf0d fiogf49gjkf0d Though Union minister for food processing industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal has set a deadline of next 30 months for making the ongoing 42 mega food parks projects functional, questions are being raised about the sluggish pace of implementation of the projects in totality.
The minister had recently said that three new mega food parks were inaugurated in the last one year and added that two would become operational in another few months. Further ministry of food processing industries (MoFPI) is intending to start 14 projects in financial year 2016-17.
The five projects that are presently operational are Patanjali Food and Herbal Park, Haridwar, Uttarakhand; Srini Food Park, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh; Integrated Food Park, Tumkur, Karnataka; International Mega Food Park, Fazilka, Punjab; and North East Mega Food Park, Nalbari, Assam.
In fact, the minister, while taking part in a recently-held conference hosted by PHD Chambers, stated that her ministry was aiming at a fully industrialised food processing sector. “It is because of this reason that the new government has focussed on setting up of 42 mega food parks that will provide adequate remuneration to farmers for their produce and also facilitate faster industrialisation of food processing industries in India and reward its consumers with dietary food with well contained prices,” added the minister.
Out of 40 projects approved by the ministry so far, 21 projects have been accorded final approval and 19 projects have been accorded in-principle approval. The brief status of 21 finally approved projects is as under:
No. of projects partially operational: 5; No. of projects likely to be operational during 2015-16: 2; No. of projects expected to become operational in 2016-17: 14.
Meanwhile, a Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture had submitted a report on mega food parks in August earlier this year and the committee was disappointed to note very slow progress in implementation of the Mega Food Parks Scheme launched in the year 2008.
The committee observed that even after lapse of seven years, only five mega food parks, as against 40 sanctioned, have been partially operational. The committee was also not convinced with the assertion of the government that reasons such as delay in acquisition of at least 50 acre of contiguous land, complex and time taking procedures of obtaining various types of statutory clearances from the state government departments/agencies, inability of Public Sector Undertakings to take a lead role in execution of the project even in the situations of crisis, lack of cohesiveness amongst the promoters and difficulties or delays in obtaining term loan sanction from banks are responsible for delay and poor physical performance.
Also according to sources in the industry, the whole idea of mega food parks is not working properly. The Rs 2,000 crore fund at NABARD has an embargo that it should be utilised for units in mega food parks only and therefore not many were interested in it. Further, the infrastructure within the parks was not ready. There was suggestion sent to the ministry about cutting the size of mega food parks by half to make the scheme more feasible.
However, the committee was of the view that the proactive steps taken by the ministry in consultation with state governments may reduce time lags caused such as problems related to statutory clearance, and land acquisition. The committee recommended the department to convince state governments to establish single-window clearance for Mega Food Parks scheme so as to enable statutory clearance by the departments/ agencies concerned. The committee also recommended the department to speed up the process of decision-making at the ministry level to expedite clearance for submitted proposals.
Fund allocation and utilisation under Mega Food Parks scheme since its inception
Year | Budget Estimate | Revised Estimate | Expenditure | 2007-08 | 100.00* | 16.50 | 11.34 | 2008-09 | 50.00 | 28.00 | 27.63 | 2009-10 | 70.00 | 23.93 | 18.49 | 2010-11 | 77.50 | 76.69 | 76.26 | 2011-12 | 110.00 | 94.39 | 83.53 | 2012-13 | 86.00 | 93.20 | 93.11 | 2013-14 | 116.00 | 110.25 | 94.11 | 2014-15 | 120.00 | 63.94 | 63.88 | 2015-16 (as on 31.05.2015) | 120.00 | | 20.00 |
Furthermore, the delinking of the National Mission on Food Processing from the Centre sponsored scheme has also affected the growth of the Mega Food Parks scheme. Now since MoFPI has no direct role in its implementation, the whole programme is at the mercy of state governments. Sources in the ministry say that while few states like Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have taken proactive action on the subject by making separate department to deal with it, many states have to push hard to make it a success. And also there is no mechanism to monitor the mission.
In this scenario, reducing wastage of farm produce estimated at Rs 92,000 crore with the help of projects such as Mega Food Parks scheme, seems to be quite a formidable challenge for MoFPI.
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