Union Minister urges states to make use of 'Sampada Scheme'

: Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today asked states to utilise the 'Sampada Scheme' launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with an allocation of Rs 6,000 crore to benefit the food and marine products processing sector.
"I am here to tell about the prospects of the World Food India 2017 conference and the Sampada (Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing) Scheme where the Prime Minister has set a target to double the farmers income by 2022...", the Food Processing Minister said.
"The Centre has allocated Rs 6,000 crore over the next three years for developing infrastructure which will leverage Rs 31,000 crore of investments," she said.

Badal was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a Roadshow on World Food India 2017 conference organised by her Ministry and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
"Every state that wants the farmers to get maximum benefit should try and take up the Sampada Scheme and the subsidies which we give for setting up small agro-processing clusters, for setting up infrastructure at farm gate level, create backward and forward linkages..", she said.
She said the scheme would benefit 20 lakh farmers and create five lakh employment opportunities.

Referring to the Mega Food Parks proposed by her Ministry, she said 42 Mega Food Parks have been planned with an outlay of Rs 2,100 crore.

"We have got Rs 2,100 crore and this will leverage investments of Rs 10,500 crore. Once all these parks are functional then almost 12.50 lakh farmers will benefit and 2.50 lakh jobs will be created," she said.
In Tamil Nadu, she said the Ministry had allocated a Mega Food Park in Coimbatore at investments of Rs 130 crore.
"There is a Mega Food Park coming up in Coimbatore on a 50-acre land, with an investment of Rs 130 crore out of which Rs 50 crore will be given by the Central government", she said.
To a query, she said the Ministry already inaugurated two and three more would be inaugurated shortly. "All the 42 Mega Food Parks will be operational in two years," she said.

On organic farming, she said it has huge potential as there was huge demand.
"The demand (for organic farming) is high and as far as the prices are concerned the farmers can demand higher price," she said.
The Ministers and senior officials were here to take part in the Roadshow on World Food India 2017 conference scheduled to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on November 3.