TIRUNELVELI
Even as the Government of Tamil Nadu has proposed to establish a mega food park in the district, a meeting organised by Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish for all stakeholders, including prospective investors here on Tuesday, has attracted good number of aspirants towards this venture as this region is known for producing huge quantity of horticultural crops.
Though the State of Tamil Nadu is witnessing investments in various industrial parks, the agrarian sector has its own limitation in investment under the food processing sector. The attitude of the consumers and their awareness of processed foods necessitates the development of mega food parks, which would be of great help to the farmers producing marketable surplus. Hence the Government of Tamil Nadu is showing interest in this avenue that is capable of augmenting farmers’ income.
To achieve the concept of Food Park Investment under the Supply Chain Management, the Department of Agricultural Marketing and Agro Business has developed a project called ‘Collective Farming Concept’ wherein 1,000 farmers would be grouped as FIG (Farmers Interest Group) / FPG (Farmers Producers Group) and registered as Farmer Producer Companies under Indian Companies Act 2013. Under the guidance of Tamil Nadu Government, the viable agro-processing projects are being identified by NABARD – NABCONS in ten districts.
In this line, Ms. Shilpa, one of the chief architects of the Single Window portal of the Industries Department and the Tamil Nadu Business Facilitation Act 2017, has developed Farmer Producer Companies based on the district’s predominant horticultural crops like banana, lemon, onion, vegetables and other crops including millets and pulses.
The government has now developed 5 refrigerated primary processing centre (PPC) infrastructure in the district to provide backward and forward market linkage to the farmers by preserving the easily or highly perishable horticultural crops, which would shield the farmers from huge losses. The PPC / Main Markets with refrigeration facility has been created at Palayamkottai, Valliyoor, Paavoorchathram, Sankarankovil and Kadayanallur on an outlay of ₹ 27 crore to preserve the horticultural crops being brought to the Regulated Markets in these places under Supply Chain Management Scheme.
“Tirunelveli is one among the places identified for establishing Mega Food Park. Hence 33.36 acres of land has been identified in SIPCOT Industrial Growth Centre, Gangaikondan. To make the Food Park and Supply Chain Management – PPC / Main Markets operational in near future, a meet with prospective investors, Farmer Producer Companies, bankers and other stakeholders like NABARD, NABARD Consultancy Services (NABCONS), government officials, farmers’ representatives was organised at SIPCOT Complex on Tuesday with Collector in chair. Everyone showed a keen interest in realising this much-awaited project on an early note,” said Ms. Shilpa.
The incentives for Food Processing Sector and operationalization and efficacy of Supply Chain Management, project infrastructures for the agro processing clusters were discussed with the investors during the meet. The Collector emphasized the implementation of Single Window Clearance through online portal and also discussed with the investors to make their investment pertaining to the marketable surplus choices of perishable crops of the district.
The Collector also insisted the Farmer Producer Companies and investors to join hands for sharing the profit by utilizing the PPC/Main Markets created under Supply Chain Management by Department of Agricultural Marketing and Agro Business.
Core, non-core infrastructures and common facilities will be created in the proposed Food Park based on the needs of the investors and Farmer Producer Companies. “There will be flexibility in developing infrastructures based on needs,” Ms. Shilpa assured.
For further details regarding Food Park Investment, the entrepreneurs may send their Expression of Interest (EOI) with suggestions for implementation of the project to the mail ddab.tirunelveli@gmail.com, she said.
