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Topic: Indus Best Mega Food Park

Why in News?

• Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Narendra Singh Tomar has virtually inaugurated the Indus Best Mega Food Park at Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

Key Highlights

• The Mega Food Park will ensure value addition, longer shelf life for farm produce, better price realization for farmers, and excellent storage facility.
• The Park will benefit the processors and consumers of Chhattisgarh and adjoining areas immensely and prove to be a big boost to the growth of the food processing sector in the State of Chhattisgarh.
• Further, in a bid to make India a resilient food economy and the Food Factory of the World, the government has made Food Processing a major thrust area of ‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat’.
• This will also provide an opportunity to farmers, Self Help Groups (SHGs) and micro-entrepreneurs to undertake processing operations on plug and operate basis and create huge job opportunities in the catchment area of the Park.

About Mega Food Park Scheme

• 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 a particular focus on perishables, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries is implementing the 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.
• Common facilities and enabling infrastructure is created at the Central Processing Centre and facilities for primary processing and storage are created near the farm in the form of Primary Processing Centers (PPCs) and Collection Centers (CCs).
• Under the Scheme, the Government of India provides financial assistance up to Rs. 50.00 Crore per Mega Food Park project.
• Ministry of Food Processing Industries is focusing on boosting the food processing industry so that the agriculture sector grows exponentially and become a major contributor to doubling the farmer’s income and the ‘AtmaNirbhar Bharat’ initiative.