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Of preservation and renewable energy
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Tuesday, 30 August, 2011, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Balvinder Singh, MD, Uni-Liais Private Limited, offers his views on Supply Chain & Preservation and Renewable Energy In India - in the former he looks at supply chain and preservation aspects in the Indian context and in the latter deals with what is regarded as future growth driver in the sector.
SUPPLY CHAIN & PRESERVATION
India is a vast country with population of 114 crore and total area of 3.28 million sq km, out of which major part of the area is under cultivation. Nearly 72% of population lives in villages and most of it is engaged in cultivation and agriculture. The cultivable land in India is capable of producing all types of fruits and vegetables, but the agro-based systems are quite improper and need improvement at a large scale. A very big portion of our agro-products - nearly 40% goes waste and the main reason is improper supply chain with inefficient cold storages. In case we want to serve our people efficiently, we will have to build effective cold chain or supply chain which should also ensure remunerative prices for the farmers.
Linkages
In India, the food processing sector has an important role to play and backward and forward linkages will be very important for bringing the commodities from farmers to consumers that may be termed as from "farm to fork." For serving the domestic and international consumer efficiently, cold chains or supply chains play vital role. It is with food processing and proper supply chain, the basic problems of agricultural surpluses and wastages can be solved which will result into better working atmosphere for the complete work force involved in the food processing sector. India is a very fast growing economy and the production of fruits and vegetables is going to multiply in the times to come and we will need supply chains on large- scale basis.
Categories
The food supply chain can be divided into different categories such as agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, etc. The processors with cold chain facility will do the value addition at different stages and then only the product will reach its final destination i.e. consumer. So we can say that cold chain is a logistic system which should provide series of facilities such as collection, gradation, pre-washing, pre-cooling, ripening, storage and finally its distribution and then the consumer. The chain needs to start from the farm level to consumer level or from the point of origin to the point of consumption. The efficient and well managed cold chain will reduce spoilage / wastage and retain the nutrients by maintaining quality of the harvested products. The chain has to be properly organised and managed with state-of-the-art technology and no link should be missing, failing which the whole system will collapse.
The cold chain logistic system should have proper infrastructure such as pre-cooling centre, collection centre, graders, washing section, ripening chamber, cold storage, refrigerated carriers, packaging, warehouse, information management system, barcoding and traceability.
MoFPI guidelines
As per guidelines of ministry of food processing industries (MoFPI), Government of India, under 11th Plan schemes the objective of cold chain (value addition and preservation infrastructure) is to provide complete supply chain and preservation infrastructural facilities from farm to consumer without any break. Pre-cooling facilities at farm level, reefer vans and mobile cooling units are covered under this scheme.
Financial assistance in the shape of Grant-In-Aid which is 50% of the total cost of the plant & machinery and technical civil work in general areas and 75% for difficult areas subject to maximum of Rs 10 crore is provided by the Government of India.
The Grant-In-Aid amount will be admissible for payment in the following 3 stages:
Stage 1
First installment of 25% of the total grant under the scheme will be released after ensuring that 25% of the promoter's contribution and 25% of the term loan has been spent on the project.
Stage 2
Second installment will be 50% of the total grant, which will be released after ensuring that utilisation of first installment of the grant - 50% of the promoters contribution and 50% of term loan have been spent on the project.
Stage 3
Third and final installment of remaining 25% will be released after ensuring that project has achieved completion and commercial operation has started.
The entrepreneurs will be required to submit the following documents:
I. Application in the MoFPI prescribed format
II. Detailed project report
III. Sanction letter of term loan from bank / financial institutions
IV. Appraisal report from bank / financial institution
V. Certificate of incorporation / registration of the organisation, memorandum and articles of association and bylaws of the society (if applicable) / partnership deed etc.
VI. Bio-data / background of the office bearers / promoters of the organisation
VII. Annual reports and Audited Statement of Accounts of last two years, in case of expansion proposals / cases
VIII. Blue Print of Building Plan
IX. Notarised English version of land document (in case it is in any of the regional languages)
X. Item-wise and cost-wise details of Technical Civil Works envisaged duly certified by Chartered Engineer (Civil)
XI. Quotations from the suppliers of plant & machinery and equipments etc. required for the project
XII. Marketing strategy
XIII. Diagram of integrated cold chain and proposed interventions
XIV. Manufacturing permission such as SSI / IEM registration etc.
XV. Implementation schedule indicating (a) date of acquiring land, (b) date of start of construction of building, (c) date of completion of building, (d) date for placing order for plant & machinery, (e) date of installation / erection, (f) date of trial production / running and (g) date of commercial production / running
XVI. In case of irradiation facilities, the following documents are required to furnish, (a) Letter from BARC / BRIT that technology is approved for intended process / products & copy of such letter, (b) Technical Agreement with BARC / BRIT for installation & operationalisation of plant, (c) Details of technical personal / expertise by implementing agency showing the competence to run the operations.
XVII. An affidavit duly executed on non-judicial stamp paper of Rs 100 or more duly notarised by Notary Public affirming: (a) that organisation's sister concern(s) / inter connected company / group company as well as the applicant company itself has not obtained any financial assistance for a food processing project in the past from MoFPI, (b) that the organisation has not obtained / applied for or will not obtain any grant / subsidy from any ministry / department of Central Government / GoI organisation / agencies and state government for the same purpose / activity / same components.
Sometime back, MoFPI had issued an Expression of Interest notice seeking proposals from potential stakeholders for establishment of integrated cold chain projects, under cold chain, value addition and preservation infrastructure component of the Infrastructure Development Scheme of the ministry.
In pursuance of the EoI notice, 164 proposals were received by MoFPI out of which 39 proposals have been approved
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