SRINAGAR: A total of 143 micro food processing enterprises in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara and Baramulla districts have secured loans under the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme, according to data presented by the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The ministry said 53 enterprises in Kupwara and 90 in Baramulla had received loan sanctions under the scheme, which covers 112 Aspirational Districts across the country. No district-wise PMFME loan figure for Ladakh was listed in the annexure.
The figures were provided in response to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1891 on funds allocated under the Agro-Processing Clusters (APC) scheme. The Union Government said loans had been sanctioned to 28,200 micro food processing enterprises across 112 Aspirational Districts under PMFME.
Jammu and Kashmir’s 143 sanctioned loans account for about 0.5 per cent of the national total across the 112 districts. Among the listed districts, Baramulla recorded a higher number of sanctions than Kupwara, with 90 against 53.
At the national level, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries said Rs 450.30 crore had been allocated under the APC Scheme up to Financial Year 2026-27, of which Rs 340.86 crore had been disbursed. The scheme, implemented since 2017 as a component of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY), provides financial assistance for modern food-processing infrastructure based on a cluster approach.
Under the APC Scheme, assistance is provided at 35 per cent of eligible project costs in general areas and 50 per cent in North-Eastern States, including Sikkim, Himalayan States, notified ITDP areas and Islands, subject to a maximum grant of Rs 10 crore.
The ministry said 73 APC projects had been approved nationwide, of which 13 had been completed, comprising 68 food processing units. It said the scheme was demand-driven, with proposals invited from prospective investors and entrepreneurs through Expressions of Interest, subject to availability of funds.
The Union Government also rejected the suggestion that recent audits had found Project Execution Agencies completing Core Processing Infrastructure mainly to draw grants while failing to bring in the mandatory five micro-tenant units. The ministry said a third-party Impact Evaluation Study conducted by the Quality Council of India had not reported such a finding.
The ministry said the APC scheme releases grants in phases, with the final instalment payable only after the Project Execution Agency submits proof of commercial operation of the prescribed number of food processing units.
In Chhattisgarh, the ministry said one APC project had been approved in Bemetara district, but no food processing unit had yet been established there. The project, being executed by M/s K K Agro Trade Ventures Private Limited, was approved on February 28, 2024, at a project cost of Rs 68.87 crore, with an approved grant of Rs 10 crore. No grant had been released as of the date of the response.
The ministry further said 41 Mega Food Parks had been approved in 25 states, with one operational Mega Food Park in Chhattisgarh. Of the 31.6 acres of total leasable area in the Chhattisgarh park, 24.1 acres had been leased to food processing units.
The government said the APC scheme is designed to provide common facilities and strengthen backward and forward linkages between farmers and food processing enterprises. It said no separate policy measure such as a new tenancy-linked final grant mechanism or regulated CPI user tariffs was proposed in the response, while existing phased grant release conditions were cited as a safeguard against incomplete commercial operations.
