Satara (Maharashtra): Satara Mega Food Park Pvt. Ltd, the first Mega Food Park in Maharashtra, was inaugurated on Thursday at Village Degaon in Satara dsitrict. Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal opened the Satara Mega Food Park in the presence of Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
"Satara Mega Food Park, first in Maharashtra, is the 12th Mega Food Park operationalized in the country so far and the 10th operationalized during the tenure of present government", Ministry of Food Processing Industries said.
Speaking on the occasion Harsimrat Kaur Badal said that her ministry is focusing on boosting the food processing industry so that agriculture sector grows exponentially and become a major contributor to doubling the farmer’s income and ‘Make in India’ initiative of the government.
"To give a major boost to the food processing sector by adding value and reducing food wastage at each stage of the supply chain with particular focus on perishables, Ministry of Food Processing Industries is implementing Mega Food Park Scheme in the country. Mega Food Parks create modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along the value chain from farm to market with strong forward and backward linkages through a cluster based approach", she said.
"Common facilities and enabling infrastructure is created at Central Processing Centre and facilities for primary processing and storage is created near the farm in the form of Primary Processing Centers (PPCs) and Collection Centers (CCs). Under the Scheme, Government of India provides financial assistance upto Rs. 50.00 Crore per Mega Food Park project", she added.
Badal also informed that the Mega Food Park will leverage an additional investment of about Rs. 250 crore in 25-30 food processing units in the park and would eventually lead to an turnover of about Rs. 450-500 crore annually. "The Park will also provide direct and indirect employment to 5,000 persons and benefit about 25,000 farmers in the CPC and PPC catchment areas", she said.
The Minister said that food processing sector will contribute immensely towards ‘Doubling Farmers income’ in the coming years and the Ministry is working tirelessly to achieving this goal through implementation of projects under the flagship scheme of ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana’.
Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis while addressing the inaugural ceremony assured that this food park will be one of the best food processing industries in the country. "Food Parks is need of the hour to make the agriculture sustainable", Fadnavis said.
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