The Inter-Ministerial Approval Committee (IMAC) meeting chaired by Union Minister for Food Processing Industries, Narendra Singh Tomar, approved 21 projects, leveraging investment worth Rs 443 crore supported with a grant of Rs 189 crore under the Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition.
These projects are likely to create employment for around 12,600 people and benefit over 2,00,592 farmers.
Of the 21 projects approved, six were in Andhra Pradesh, four in Gujarat, two in Himachal Pradesh, three in Uttarakhand and one each in Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Nagaland, Punjab, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.
The Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure aims at arresting post-harvest losses of horticulture & non-horticulture produce and providing remunerative price to farmers.
Moreover, as many as eight projects leveraging investment worth Rs 62 crore with grants of Rs 15 crore under the BFL Scheme were approved in another meeting chaired by the Union Minister.
These eight projects are likely to generate employment for nearly 2,500 people. The objective of the scheme is to provide effective and seamless backward and forward integration for the processed food industry by plugging the gaps in the supply chain in terms of availability of raw material and linkages with the market.