Govt to lift cap on food parks to attract private investors

To boost food processing industries, the government is planning to lift the cap on number of food parks to be set up across the country and also bring down the subsidy component.

The measures are part of a series of initiatives being planned by the department of food processing to make the scheme to build mega food parks across the country more attractive for investors in the 12th five-year plan (2012-13 to 2016-17). According to a senior official from the department of food processing, the programme is being revamped because of slow progress in building mega food parks across the country in the 11th five year plan.

Land and finance has been major the bottlenecks speedy completion of the food parks in the last plan that ended in 2012-2013, the official said. Under the central government’s programme to establish mega food parks across, the government has approved 15 such parks in the first and second phase, while another 15 was approved in the third phase.

However, till date only two mega parks has been made operational, while another 4 are in advanced stages of completion. Of the 30, 15 parks were granted in-principle approval only last month, hence should not be expected to be completed so soon, the official said.

The four food parks which are in advanced stages of completion are one in Haridwar, one in Nalbari (Assam), Jangipur in West Bengal and Srini in Andhra Pradesh. The Srini food park was recently inaugurated by agriculture minister Sharad Pawar.

“The scheme was approved in the last five-year plan, but it gathered pace only in the last few years because of land issues and also due to matters related to financial closure. But, now we feel that the scheme will take off in the right earnest,” food processing secretary Rakesh Kacker told reporters.

He said to make the scheme more attractive for investors; his department has proposed to lift the cap on number of food parks, but reducing the subsidy at the same time.

“At present, government gives a 50% subsidy for setting up a mega food park, up to a limit of Rs 50 crore. But, in the 12th plan we are planning to lift the cap on the number of food parks (as many parks can be set up), while at the same time the extent of subsidy would come down,” Kacker said.

The subsidy would be for either capital or interest. The food parks have to be set up with a minimum area of 50 acres and the subsidy burden is shared 70:30 between Centre and state governments. The government plans to pump in around Rs 3,000 crore in the 12th five-year plan that started from April 1, 2012 for setting up mega food parks.

Serial Number	Park Name	Date of Final Approval	State
1	Patanjali Food & Herbal Park Ltd	March 2009	Uttarakhand
2	Srini Food Park Pvt Ltd	March 2009	Andhra Pradesh
3	North East Mega Food Park Ltd	March 2009	Assam
4	Jharkhand Mega Food Park Pvt Ltd	March 2009	Jharkhand
5	Tamil Nadu Mega Food Park Ltd	March 2010	Tamil Nadu
6	Jangipur Bengal Mega Food Park	March 2010	West Bengal
7	Integrated Food Park Pvt Ltd	March 2011	Kolar, Karnataka
8	International Fresh Farm Products (India) Ltd	May 2011	Ferozpur, Punjab
	Keventer Food Park Infra Ltd	Nov 2011	Bagalpur, Bihar
10	Sikaria Infra Projects Pvt Ltd	Nov 2011	Agartala, Tripura
11	Anil Mega Food Park Pvt Ltd	Jan 2012	Vadodara, Gujarat
12	MITS Mega Food Park Ltd	Apr 2012	Rayagada, Odisha
13	Paithan Mega Food Park Ltd	Apr 2011	Aurangabad, Maharashtra
14	Khargone Mega Food Park Pvt Ltd	Oct 2011	Khargone, Madhya Pradesh
15	Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd	Sept 2010	Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh
Source: Government of India and Parliament Papers

“The programme has been devised on the pattern of agriculture minister’s flagship programme, the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY),” Kacker said.

He said in the spinoff, impact of mega food parks on farmer’s income and employment potential of a region would be known only once the park is operational for 2-3 years.