Credit and finance for MSMEs: PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PMFME), which offers credit-linked subsidy to set up or upgrade micro food processing units, has received over 1,02,515 loan applications so far. Out of the applications received, 25,774 loan applications have been sanctioned, according to the data shared by the minister of food processing industries Pashupati Kumar Paras in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The scheme looks to support the setting up of 2 lakh micro food processing enterprises through credit-linked subsidy during the five-year period from 2020-21 to 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore.
Apart from credit support, the scheme also has a capacity-building component to train individual micro-food processing enterprises with or without credit linked grant under the scheme, workers of micro-food processing enterprises and groups such as self-help groups, farmer producer organisations and cooperatives apart from government officials and others engaged in the implementation of the scheme.
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So far 25 training workshops/sessions have been conducted for 486 master trainers, which are product-specific trainers, 76 sessions for 983 district-level trainers, 1,085 sessions for 27,949 beneficiaries, etc.
Importantly, the ministry has signed memorandums of understanding or joint letters with multiple government enterprises and departments such as the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR), Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD), Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), and more to converge PMFME scheme with other government schemes, identify and handhold beneficiaries in capacity building, marketing and increasing outreach of scheme.
Meanwhile, the ministry also operates the Central Sector Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Food Processing Industry (PLISFPI) Scheme that aims to support the creation of global food manufacturing companies and is implemented over a six-year period from 2021-22 to 2026-27 with an outlay of Rs 10,900 crores.
Minister of state Prahlad Singh Patel in the ministry of food processing industries noted that for easy and affordable credit to the sector, all food and agro-processing activities have been made eligible under priority sector lending while a special fund of Rs 2,000 crore has been set up in National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to support these enterprises.