Is the governments plan on the food processing front proceeding as planned? In order to give a big boost to the food processing sector,the government proposed to set up five more mega food parks in addition to the 10 parks being set up in the Union budget for 2010-11. But the industry which is unhappy with the progress of food parks thinks this is likely to remain a dream. The Agro & Food Processing Technology & Equipment Providers Association of India (AFTPAI),a newly formed association,said that no concrete measure has been taken so far by the government as promised in the previous budgets for the sector. The proposed five mega food parks are almost a distant dream for us. In reality,there are only two food parks which are working as of date. In addition,proper infrastructure,which facilitates the sector in some way or the other,is not in place, AFTPAI secretary Firoz H Naqvi said. Even the two parks claimed to have come up so far out of the proposed ten parks allowed earlier are not fully functional. Industry sources said the delay is due to lack of basic infrastructure,market linkages and state regulatory aspects for agri-processing units. Despite granting many benefits to these food parks,major players in the industry are not coming up to set up parks in the country. If we look at the real response from food industry,mainly from big players,it is very poor, said an industry insider. Out of the first five mega parks permitted by the government earlier,I do not think theres any park which is 100 per cent operational. To my knowledge,only two mega parks Jharkhand Mega Food Park in Ranchi and Swami Ramdev Baba Food Park in Haridwar are partially operational. We have not seen any farm-based procurement facilities in those food parks as well, said a Gurgaon-based expert who has been involved in these mega projects.
