Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today laid the foundation stone of the first mega food park in Nizamabad district, Telangana, which is expected to provide employment to 6,000 people and benefit about 30,000 farmers in its catchment area.
The mega food park promoted by Smart Agro Food Park Pvt Ltd would cost 108.95 crore and will be set up in 78 acres at Lakkampally and Chimrajpally village in Nizamabad.
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The Centre has sanctioned two more mega food parks to be set up in Khammam and Mahboobnagar districts in the state.
Speaking on the occasion, Badal said: “Timely completion of this mega food park project will not only provide a big boost in growth of food processing infrastructure in Telangana but also help in providing better prices to farmers, reduce wastage of perishables, add value to agri-produce and create huge opportunities for entrepreneurship and employment.”
The Nizamabad mega food park will have a strong backward linkage and three Primary Processing Centres will be set up at Medchal, Medak and Nalgonda, an official statement said.
On completion, the park will have multi commodity storage capacity of 5,000 tonnes, raw material warehouse facility, finished goods warehouse unit, grain silos with capaicty of 5,000 tonnes and deep freeze unit for 500 tonnes and turmeric processing unit with a capacity of 20 tonnes per day besides a modern food testing lab, she added.
Badal said, “The Centre is focusing on boosting the food processing sector so that agriculture sector grows exponentially and becomes the engine of growth to drive the “Make in India” initiative of the Prime Minister.”
Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Member of Parliament from Nizamabad K Kavitha, and MLA from Armur constituency of Telangana A Jeevan Reddy, were also present on the occasion.
Badal further said the Centre has identified creation of modern infrastructure for food processing as a focus area and encouraging private investment.
To meet this objective, a Mega Food Park Scheme is being implemented in the country to facilitate creation of modern infrastructure for food processing along the value chain from the farm to the market with strong forward and backward linkages through a cluster-based approach, she added.