File Photo: Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal
Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said 42 mega food parks worth Rs 2,000 crore will be set in the entire country, out of which five have already been established.
"One of such food parks is at Fazilka in Punjab whereas 2 food parks at Ludhiana and kapurthala will be established with in next 2 years," she said at village Behra at Dera Bassi after formally inaugurating the Centre for learning resources Development at LM Thapar School of Management Thapar University Campus Dera Bassi.
On demand of Local Legislator NK Sharma, she gave the approval for establishing Mega Food Park at Lalru.
Union Minister said that these Food Parks will be having all facilities like Production, Processing Plant, Cold Store, Collection centre & Transports, besides this it will also facilitate the farmers by providing value for their hard work.
"One Mega Food Park provides employment to 30 thousand persons directly and will provide benefit indirectly to more than 1 lakh persons," she said.
Harsimrat said with the efforts of Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, Centre has given its approval for making fuel (ethanol) from maize. This will expand the area under maize crop and farmers will also get value for their crops, she said.
Addressing the conference, GS Kalkat Chairman Punjab State Farmers Commission expressed concern about the degradation of quality of subsoil water table and urging the farmers to cultivate fruits, flowers and vegetables and also said that to facilitate farmers to meet with marketing needs a collection centre should be established in each district of the state.
He also emphasised on adequate staff in Agriculture University so that research in the field of agriculture could be done.