Extension of PMKSY Scheme till FY 2026

The Government of India has extended the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY)' to improve farm productivity by four years till 2025-26 to complete ongoing projects. PMKSY scheme implementation is vested with the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Government of India. The Central government has allocated Rs 4,600 crore for the scheme. This umbrella scheme of MoFPI incorporates a lot of ongoing schemes of the Ministry, which is briefly covered in this article. Know more about the Revised Guidelines of Mega Food Park Scheme (MFPS)

The Gist of MoFPI Notification

Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Government of India has announced the Continuation of the central sector umbrella scheme PMKSY for the period between 2011-22 to 2025-26 vide a Notification dated 4th February 2022. The following schemes will be continued under the PMKSY :

Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure
Creation Infrastructure for Agro-processing Clusters
Creation / Expansion of Food Processing and Preservation Capacities
Food Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure
Human Resources and Institutions – Research and Development
Operation Greens

The component scheme of Mega Food Park, Creation of Backward and Forward Linkages, Human Resources and Institution – Promotional Activities, Skill Development, and HACCP, a component of Food Safety and Quality assurance Infrastructure has been discontinued. Based on the progress of the schemes and mid-term corrections, inter-scheme reallocation of the outlay may be approved by the Minister I/C for food processing industries subject to a maximum of 25% of the original outlay of that scheme.

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY)

In May 2017, the Centre had launched SAMPADA (Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters) with an allocation of Rs 6,000 crore. The scheme was renamed PMKSY in August 2017.

Objective of PMKSY

The scheme seeks to supplement agriculture, modernize processing and reduce Agri-Waste.

Benefits of the PMKSY

The benefits of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) is as follows:

The comprehensive package offered by it would potentially result in the creation of modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to the retail outlet
Apart from boosting the growth of the food processing sectors in the country, it would provide the farmers with improved returns, even doubling their income.
It creates vast employment opportunities in rural locales, reduces wastage of agricultural produce, increases the processing level, and enhances the export of the foods so processed.

Financial Outlay

The scheme has been allocated with a sum of Rs 4,600 crore and is expected to leverage an investment of Rs. 11095.93 crore. Through this, the Government believes that around 2849945 farmers would be benefitting, generating 5,44432 direct/indirect employment in the country by the financial year 2025-2026.

Schemes Covered under PMKSY

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana envisages the implementation of the following schemes:

Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure

The key objective of the component scheme “Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure” is to provide integrated cold chain, preservation, and value addition infrastructure facilities without any break, from the farm gate to the consumer to reduce post-harvest losses of horticulture and non-horticulture agri-produce.

This scheme enables linking groups of producers to processors and markets through a well-equipped supply chain and the cold chain for the year-round availability of food products.
The cold chain projects for the fruit & vegetable sector are proposed to be sanctioned under Operation Greens Scheme in line with the Budget announcement.

The MofPI has proposed to sanction 30 additional projects with a total outlay of Rs.584 crore to the scheme.

Creation Infrastructure for Agro-Processing Clusters

The component scheme, Infrastructure for Agro-processing Clusters has similar objectives as MFPs i.e to create common modern food processing/preservation infrastructure facilities for the food processing/preserving units, though at a relatively smaller scale.

Ministry has proposed to sanction 30 additional projects during the 15th FC cycle with a total outlay of Rs.584 crore to the Scheme
The proposed outlay includes committed liability of Rs.344 crore for ongoing projects.

Creation / Expansion of Food Processing and Preservation Capacities

The component scheme ‘Creation / Expansion of Food Processing and Preservation Capacities’ aims at the promotion of processing of agro-food products and the modernization/capacity enhancement of food processing units especially inside Mega Food Parks & Agro-Processing Clusters which helps in increasing the level of processing, value addition thereby reduction of wastage.

The Ministry has proposed to sanction 162 additional projects during the 15th FC cycle with a total outlay of Rs.1292 crore to the scheme.
The proposed outlay includes committed liability of Rs.642 crore for ongoing projects.

Food Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure

The scheme Food Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure has been launched with the following Objectives:

To ensure food safety and quality by establishing a surveillance system for monitoring the quality and composition of food
To reduce the time for analysis of samples by reducing the transpiration time of samples and ensuring compliance with international and domestic standards on food in case of exports as well as imports

The scheme assists in setting up /up-gradation of Quality Control / Food Testing Laboratories and implementation of Food Safety and Quality Management System through HACCP/ISO22000/FSSC22000/BRC/SQF or any other Global Food Safety Initiative approved certification scheme in food processing units.

Ministry has proposed to sanction 25 additional projects during the 15th FC cycle with a total outlay of Rs.145 crore to the scheme.
The proposed outlay includes committed liability of Rs.70 crore for ongoing projects.

Human Resources and Institutions – Research and Development

Under the Scheme Human Resources and Institutions – Research and Development assistance is provided for setting up of skill centers to impart training and skilling on various job roles in the food processing sector and also to conduct R&D in the technologies of processes, product development, and machine and equipment development.

The Ministry has proposed to sanction 100 R&D projects during the 15th FC cycle with a total outlay of Rs.31.50 crore to the scheme.
The proposed outlay includes committed liability of Rs.6.5 crore for ongoing projects.
The skill development component is proposed to be covered under the new Centrally Sponsored scheme of PMFME and only committed liability of Rs.4.5 crore is proposed for ongoing projects.

Operation Greens

The scheme Operation Greens-Integrated Value Chain Development for Tomato, Onion, and Potato Crops is implemented by the MoFPI since October 2018 in pursuance of Budget announcement 2021-2022. The key objective of the scheme is as follows:

To enhance the value realization of Tomato-Onion-Potato (TOP) farmers by targeted interventions to strengthen TOP production clusters and their FPO
For linking/connecting TOP Production FBO with the market
To ensure price stabilization, for producers and consumers by proper production planning, reduction in post-harvest losses by creation of farm gate infrastructure and
To increase the food processing capacities and value addition in the TOP value chain with firm linkages with production clusters

For the expansion of the scope of the Operation Greens scheme from TOP To 22 perishables, Ministry has proposed to revamp and recast the scheme.

To ensure inter scheme convergence, it has been proposed to discontinue the sanction of the Fruit and Vegetable projects Cold Chain Scheme. This component will be covered under the Operation Greens
Ministry has proposed to sanction 80 additional operation Greens projects during the 15th FC with a total outlay of Rs.921 crore to the scheme.

The pattern of Assistance under PMKSY

The pattern of Assistance in the component Scheme covered under PMKSY is as follows:

Sl.No	Component Scheme	For projects in General Area	For projects in NER, Difficult Areas, ITDP & Islands, and for SC/ST promoters
1	Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure	Grant-in aid @ 40% of eligible Project Cost (subject to Rs.10 Crores )	Grant-in aid @ 50% of eligible Project Cost (subject to Rs.10 Crores )
2	Creation and Expansion of Food Processing and Preservation Capacities	Grant-in aid @ 35% of eligible Project Cost (subject to Rs.5 Crores	Grant-in aid @ 50% of eligible Project Cost (subject to a maximum of Rs.5 Crores)
5	Infrastructure for Agro-processing Clusters	Grant-in aid @ 35% of eligible Project Cost (subject to Rs.10 Crores	Grant-in aid @ 50% of eligible Project Cost (subject to a maximum of Rs.10 Crores
4	Food Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure	For Central/State Government organizations - Grant-in aid @ 100% of equipment cost, 25% of Technical Civil Work, and 80% of salary for 2 JRF staff For other implementation Agencies- Grant-in aid @ 50% of equipment cost, 25% of Technical Civil Work	For Central/State Government organizations - Grant-in aid @ 100% of equipment cost, 33% of Technical Civil Work, and 80% of salary for 2 JRF staff For other implementation Agencies- Grant-in aid @ 70% of equipment cost, 33% of Technical Civil Work
5	Human Resources and Institutions – Research and Development	For Government organizations - Grant-in aid @ 100% of equipment cost, consumables salary for JRF/SRF/RA, TA/DA, and institutional charges for a duration of maximum 3 years	For Government organizations – Same as for General Areas
6	Operation Greens	Grant-in aid @ 50% of the eligible project cost subject to a maximum of Rs.50 Crore per project for Long term infrastructure creation component and subsidy maximum @ 50% of the cost of transpiration and storage	Grant-in aid @ 70% of the eligible project cost subject to a maximum of Rs.50 Crore per project for Long term infrastructure creation component and subsidy maximum @ 50% of the cost of transpiration and storage