Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Union Finance Minister announced in the budget for 2011-12, to set up 15 more mega food parks (MFPs) and also urged that the states should reform the Agriculture Produce Marketing Act (APMC) to improve the supply chain. He also added that in the 11th Five year plan, the number of food parks will be increased to a total of 30.
The budget also allocated US$ 135 million to the Food Processing Ministry from the existing US$ 90 million. As a measure to boost investment in agriculture the minister extended the Viability Gap Funding Scheme (VGFS) for public private partnerships (PPP) for setting up modern storage capacity besides giving infrastructure status to cold chains.
An integrated strategy for promotion of agribusiness Vision, Strategy an Action Plan for the Food Processing Sector has also been approved by the Government. Vision 2015 was announced by the Government of India, which suggested the strategy to ensure faster growth of the food processing sector. The Vision 2015 provides for enhancing the level of processing of perishable to 20 per cent, enhancing value addition to 35 per cent.