Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Wednesday reviewed the implementation of the Mega Food Park scheme and its project site at Dolikoto village, near Banderdewa in Papum Pare district.
The food park aims at providing a mechanism to link agricultural production to the market by bringing together farmers, processors and retailers.
This will ensure maximizing value addition, minimizing wastage, increasing farmers’ income and creating employment opportunities, particularly in the rural sector.
It is based on a “cluster” approach and envisages the creation of state of the art support infrastructure in a well-defined Agri/horticultural zone for setting up modern food processing units.
A mega food park typically consists of supply chain infrastructure including collection centres, primary processing centres, central processing centres, and cold chain.
Around 25-30 fully developed plots for entrepreneurs to set up food processing units are also included in such parks.
The scheme was sanctioned for Arunachal Pradesh with due persuasion of the Chief Minister on September 13, 2019, by the Centre.
For the said food park 75 acres of land has been procured, out of which 50 acres have been provided for food industries.
The park will be constructed with an estimated cost of Rs 519 crores and will have several facilities like pet bottle line, warehouse, multi-chamber cold storage, the tetra-packaging line among others.
It is envisaged that the Food Park will bring huge investment in multi-sectoral food industries by attracting industrialists globally for setting up new ventures, which would generate employment and provide a market to farmers of the state.
“This is a good sign. We need to advertise and sell the feasibility of our Park so that many more local and multi-national companies set up industries here,” Khandu said.
“Our farmers would hugely benefit from such food industries,” he added.