Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti has informed that The Ministry of Food Processing Industries has launched a new Central Sector Scheme PRADHAN MANTRI KISAN SAMPADA YOJANA (PMKSY) with an allocation of Rs.6000 crore for the period of 2016-20 co-terminus with 14th Finance Commission cycle. PMKSY is an umbrella scheme for overall development of food processing sector which includes development of food processing units. The scheme encompasses three new schemes viz. (i) Infrastructure for Agro-processing Clusters; (ii) Creation of Backward and Forward Linkages; and (iii) Creation/Expansion of Food Processing & Preservation Capacities and four on-going schemes viz. (i) Mega Food Parks; (ii) Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure; (iii) Food Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure; and (iv) Human Resources and Institutions. The aforementioned schemes are implemented mainly by private sector & demand driven and provide flexibility to the promoters to choose the components, their capacities and location of the project as per techno economic feasibility conducted by them and ensuring the viability of the project vis-à-vis availability of adequate infrastructure and smooth backward and forward integration.
The major objectives of PMKSY are to create robust modern infrastructure along the entire food processing value chain, reduce wastage of agricultural produce and increase food processing/value addition which would, inter alia, increase the income of the farmers and encourage them to adopt better farming methods/practices to increase farm productivity.