The Scheme of Mega Food Park aims at providing a mechanism to link agricultural production to the market by bringing together farmers, processors and retailers so as to ensure maximizing value addition, minimizing wastage, increasing farmers income and creating employment opportunities particularly in rural sector. The Mega Food Park Scheme is based on “Cluster” approach and envisages creation of state of art support infrastructure in a well-defined agri / horticultural zone for setting up of modern food processing units in the industrial plots provided in the park with well-established supply chain. Mega food park typically consist of supply chain infrastructure including collection centers, primary processing centers, central processing centers, cold chain and around 25-30 fully developed plots for entrepreneurs to set up food processing units.

The Mega Food Park project is implemented by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which is a Body Corporate registered under the Companies Act. State Government, State Government entities and Cooperatives are not required to form a separate SPV for implementation of Mega Food Park project. Subject to fulfillment of the conditions of the Scheme Guidelines, the funds are released to the SPVs. To view status of 37 Mega Food Parks funded under the scheme.

So far following 19 Mega Food Parks are operational:

1. Srini Mega Food Park, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh.
2. Godavari Mega Aqua Park, West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh.
3. North East Mega Food Park, Nalbari, Assam.
4. Gujarat Agro Mega Food Park, Surat, Gujarat.
5. Cremica mega Food park, Una, Himachal Pradesh.
6. Integrated Mega Food Park, Tumkur, Karnataka.
7. Indus Mega Food Park, Khargoan, Madhya Pradesh.
8. Avantee Mega Food Park, Dewas, Madhya Pradesh.
9. Paithan Mega Food Park, Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
10. Satara Mega Food Park, Satara, Maharashtra.
11. Zoram Mega Food Park, Kolasib, Mizoram.
12. MITS Mega Food Park, Rayagada, Odisha.
13. International Mega Food Park, Fazilka, Punjab.
14. Greentech Mega Food park, Ajmer, Rajasthan.
15. Smart Agro Mega Food Park, Nizamabad, Telangana.
16. Tripura Mega Food Park, West Tripura, Tripura.
17. Patanjali Food and Herbal Park, Haridwar, Uttarakhand.
18. Himalayan Mega Food Park, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand.
19. Jangipur Bengal Mega Food Park, Murshidabad, West Bengal.

• The scheme aims to facilitate the establishment of a strong food processing industry backed by an efficient supply chain, which includes Collection Centres (CCs), Primary Processing Centers (PPCs), Central Processing Center (CPC) and Cold Chain infrastructure.
• Collection Centers and Primary Processing Centers (PPCs): These components have facilities for cleaning, grading, sorting and packing, dry warehouses, specialized cold stores including pre-cooling chambers, ripening chambers, reefer vans, mobile pre-coolers, mobile collection vans etc.
• Central Processing Centers (CPC): This Includes common facilities like Testing Laboratory, Cleaning, Grading, Sorting and Packing Facilities, Dry Warehouses, specialized storage facilities including Controlled Atmosphere Chambers, Pressure Ventilators, variable Humidity Stores, pre-cooling Chambers, Ripening Chambers, Cold Chain Infrastructure including Reefer Vans, Packaging Unit, Irradiation Facilities, Steam Sterilization Units, Steam Generating Units, Food Incubation cum Development Centers etc.
• The extent of land required for establishing the CPC is around 50- 100 acres, though the actual requirement of land would depend upon the business plan, which may vary from region to region. The land required for setting up of PPCs and CCs at various locations would be in addition to land required for setting up the CPC.
• It is expected that on an average, each project will have around 25-30 food processing units with a collective investment of Rs.250 crore that would eventually lead to an annual turnover of about Rs.450-500 crore and creation of direct / indirect employment of about 5000 persons. Each MFP on being fully operational will also benefit about 25000 farmers.

• The Scheme shall provide a capital grant at the rate of 50 percent of the eligible project cost* in general areas and at the rate of 75 percent of eligible project cost in difficult and hilly areas i.e. North East Region including Sikkim, J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and ITDP notified areas of the States subject to a maximum of Rs. 50 crore per project.

*The eligible project cost is defined as total project cost but excluding cost of land, pre-operative expenses and margin money for working capital. However, interest during construction (IDC) as part of preoperative expenses and fee to Project management consultant (PMC) up to 2% of the approved grant would be considered under eligible project cost.

• In the interest of expeditious implementation of the projects, a Program Management Agency (PMA) is appointed by the Ministry to provide management, capacity building, coordination and monitoring support. For meeting the cost of the above and also other promotional activities by the Ministry, a separate amount, to the extent of 5%of the overall grants available, is earmarked.

Release of Grant

The grant-in-aid under the scheme is released in four instalments of 30%, 30%, 20% and 20%, subject to other scheme parameters, as per the following schedule:

• First Instalment of 30% of total grant under the scheme is released after ensuring expenditure of at least 10% of the eligible project cost on the project components;
• Second instalment representing 30% of approved grant assistance is released after proportionate expenditure by SPV from term loan and equity equivalent to the grant amount released as first instalment;
• Third instalment representing 20% of approved grant assistance is released after proportionate expenditure by SPV from term loan and equity equivalent to the grant amount released as second instalment;
• Fourth and final instalment representing 20% of approved grant assistance is released subject to successful completion of project and commencement of operations after ensuring expenditure of 100% envisaged contribution of SPV including term loan and equity on the approved project components.