The scheme is to support setting up of food irradiation units for the treatment of perishable agricultural produce like fruits and vegetables as well as other such items with irradiation treatment for hygienization and enhancing shelf life.
Eligible Entities
Individuals and organizations, such as FPOs, FPCs, SHGs, NGOs, PSUs, firms, and companies, etc., who are interested in food irradiation and cold chain solutions, as well as those involved in managing supply chains, can establish standalone food irradiation units or food irradiation units integrated with cold chain and value-addition infrastructure projects. Entities from the MSME sector will be given priority in assessment.
Components of the Scheme
The scheme will have the following Project Components:
- Farm Level Infrastructure (FLI), which may include processing centre, situated in the catchment area of the targeted produce. Location of FLI must mandatorily be indicated in the DPR as well as bank appraisal note.
- Processing Centre (mandatory component) – indicative list in para- 5.1 below.
- Distribution hub – This shall have a modern multi-product, multi-temperature cold storage. It may also include one or more of the facilities mentioned in paragraph 5 below depending upon the business plan of the project.
- Refrigerated vans/ refrigerated trucks/ insulated vans/ mobile insulated tankers.
Eligible Facilities for Calculation of Grant-in-Aid
Assistance under the Scheme can be availed for creation of the following facilities:
- Mechanized sorting & grading line/ packing line/ staging cold rooms.
- Cold Storage Unit(s) /Controlled Atmosphere (CA) /Modified Atmosphere (MA) Storage unit(s) [Associated with value addition].
- Frozen Storage/ Deep freezers [Associated with value addition].
- IQF line, Tunnel/ Spiral/ Blast/ Plate Freezer
- Milk Chilling/ Bulk Milk Cooling/ Automatic Milk Collection Unit/ Milk Processing Unit (including packing) for which temperature control is necessary during some part of the processing.
- Note: Maximum 10 Milk Chilling or Bulk Milk Cooling or Automatic Milk Collection Unit can be assisted per project
- Poultry/ Meat/ Marine/ Fishery Processing Unit
- Packaging line for chilled/ frozen/ temperature-controlled products
- Refrigerated/ insulated transport.
- Pre-Cooling Unit(s)/ Mobile pre-coolers.
- Vacuum Freeze Drying
- Retail refrigerated carts, temperature controlled solar powered retail carts
- Note: maximum 5 such carts can be considered per project.
- Reefer Boats
- Note: maximum 5 such boats can be considered per project.
- Refrigerated Containers including multi-modal container units.
- Renewable/ alternate energy technologies (solar, biomass, wind etc.) for the project.
- Note: maximum permissible cost is Rs. 35 lakh per project.
- Accessories/ support infrastructure/ utilities such as fixed racking system in Cold/CA storage, forklifts, reach trucks, insulated fish boxes, dock levelers, mezzanine flooring, ETP, boiler, GIP unit, Slicer/ Dicer, sorting/ grading line, etc.
- In-house product testing laboratory
- Any other modern technology for temperature-controlled storage, processing, value addition and preservation infrastructure
- The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) in the project for enhancing automation, efficiency, and quality control.
- Toilets, septic tank, drainage and such other facilities.
Pattern Of Assistances
Grant in aid will be @35% of eligible project cost for project in General Areas and @50% of eligible project cost in difficult area as well as for SC/ST subject of the maximum of Rs 10 Crore per Project
