Mega Food Parks - 22 Major Food Parks

Mega Food Parks Scheme launched by the government in 2008 provides financial assistance up to 50 crores to set up modern infrastructure facilities for food processing called Mega Food Parks. It establishes a mechanism to bring together farmers, processors and retailers and link agriculture production to the market to ensure maximization of value addition, minimization of wastage and improving farmers’ income. This article briefly covers the objectives, the way it functions by establishing infrastructures like CPC, PCC, CC; and the locations of 22 Mega Food Parks in India.

Aspirants would find this topic very helpful while preparing for the IAS Exam.

Latest Context on Mega Food Parks – 

1. In a major step towards industrialization in Bihar, the Centre has approved a mega food park at Motipur block of Muzaffarpur district. This would be the first mega food park to be developed by Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA). This food park will definitely generate employment opportunities and will help farmers and unemployed youths.
2. The State has operationalized the first Mega food park in Mizoram – Zoram Mega Food Park. The food park will benefit 25,000 farmers and create 5,000 jobs. It will boost the North-East Region’s potential to become the organic destination of the world due to its rich agricultural and horticultural produce.
   • Zoram Mega Food Park is located in Khamrang village in Kolasib District, spread over 55 acres of land to benefit not only Mizoram but the adjoining districts in Assam (which already has one Mega Food Park).

Mega Food Parks – Objectives & Infrastructure

The primary objective of the Scheme is to provide modern infrastructure facilities for the food processing along the value chain from the farm to the market with a cluster-based approach based on a hub and spokesmodel.  It includes the creation of infrastructure for primary processing and storage near the farm in the form of Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) and Collection Centres (CCs) and common facilities and enabling infrastructure like roads, electricity, water, ETP facilities etc. at Central Processing Centre (CPC). These PPCs and CCs act as aggregation and storage points to feed raw material to the food processing units located in the CPC.

Mega Food Parks – 22

The List of 22 Mega Food Parks locations that are currently operational are given below. 5 states have established 2 Mega Food Parks.

Andhra Pradesh – 2 Mega Food Parks

1. Srini Mega Food Park, Chittoor
2. Godavari Mega Aqua Park, West Godavari

Madhya Pradesh – 2 Mega Food Parks

1. Indus Mega Food Park, Khargoan
2. Avantee Mega Food Park, Dewas

Maharashtra – 2 Mega Food Parks

1. Paithan Mega Food Park, Aurangabad
2. Satara Mega Food Park, Satara

Uttarakhand – 2 Mega Food Parks

1. Patanjali Food and Herbal Park, Haridwar
2. Himalayan Mega Food Park, Udham Singh Nagar

Punjab – 2 Mega Food Parks

1. International Mega Food Park, Fazilka
2. Sukhjit Mega Food Park, Kapurthala

12 States with 1 Mega Food Park

1. North East Mega Food Park, Nalbari, Assam
2. Indus Best Mega Food Park, Raipur, Chhattisgarh
3. Gujarat Agro Mega Food Park, Surat, Gujarat
4. Cremica mega Food park, Una, Himachal Pradesh
5. Integrated Mega Food Park, Tumkur, Karnataka
6. Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) Mega Food Park, Palakkad, Kerala
7. Zoram Mega Food Park, Kolasib, Mizoram
8. MITS Mega Food Park, Rayagada, Odisha
9. Greentech Mega Food Park, Ajmer, Rajasthan
10. Smart Agro Mega Food Park, Nizamabad, Telangana
11. Tripura Mega Food Park, West Tripura, Tripura
12. Jangipur Bengal Mega Food Park, Murshidabad, West Bengal

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Central Processing Centre (CPC)

1. CPC is an industrial park in a large area and houses a number of processing units owned by different business houses.
2. The park shall provide common facilities such as electricity, water and effluent treatment besides specialised services such as warehousing, cold storage, logistics and backward integration through the network of Primary Processing Centres (PPC) and Collection Centres (CC).

Primary Collection Centres (PCC)

1. The PCCs work as primary handling centres which use the raw materials to be processed further in the CPC.
2. A PCC serves a number of CCs in the proximity.
3. they provide primary processing facilities such as weighing, sorting, grading, washing, crating and storage of the produce.

Collection Centres (CC)

1. The CCs work as a point of aggregation of the produce from individual farmers, farmer groups and Self Help Groups (SHGs).
2. They feed the raw materials to PCCs.
3. They are mostly managed by local entrepreneurs. They serve as farm-level aggregation points for adjoining areas.