Pradhan Mantri  Kisan Sampada Yojana(PMKSY) 2017

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Policy update
Nisha Bharti

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Background

The Indian economy remains central to agriculture, and it continues to be the backbone of the country. contributing nearly 18 percent of GDP,yet challenges lie in the infrastructure for storage, preservation, and processing of agricultural produce. The country loses worth over ₹90,000 crore of produce annually due to gaps in storage, transport, and processing (MoFPI, 2023).This became starkly visible during the September 2025 floods in Punjab, where heavy rains destroyed crops and disrupted supply chains, leaving local markets in Ludhiana and across the state facing acute shortages of fruits and vegetables (Times of India). The chronic wastage and sudden scarcity highlights how fragile India’s agricultural value chain remains.​

Introduction

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY), launched in 2017, is a central sector scheme implemented by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI). It aims to create a modern food processing ecosystem in India by reducing agricultural wastage and ensuring better returns for farmers. The scheme consolidates and rationalizes multiple ongoing schemes under one platform. It bridges farm-to-market linkages and seeks to empower small and marginal farmers with better price realization and foregrounds food safety and quality assurance to make Indian products globally competitive. With its integrated approach, PMKSY aims to transform the food processing sector into a growth engine for rural development, employment generation, and agri-exports.

The scheme has several key components:

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  1. Mega food parks (MPP) :Under this, Farmers, processors, and retailers are brought together under one ecosystem to create value chains from farm to market, enhance farmer incomes, and attract private investment in processing. These large facilities then provide common infrastructure for food processing industries based on a cluster approach.
  1.  Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure: Aim is  to reduce post-harvest losses, particularly in perishable items like fruits, vegetables, dairy, poultry, and fisheries.It links farmers directly with markets and retail chains, and ensures better returns and minimizes distress sales through includes facilities for pre-cooling, collection centers, refrigerated transport, cold storage, and value-added processing. 
  2. Creation/Expansion of Food Processing & Preservation Capacities (CEFPPC); To encourage small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in food processing, and enhanced competitiveness of Indian agri products by facilities such as modern packaging, preservation, and processing technologies to extend the shelf life of products, this initiative has been launched.
  1. Agro-Processing Clusters (APCs); Processing units are established near production areas. Each cluster provides common facilities like warehouses, cold storage, testing labs, and effluent treatment plants. It reduces logistics costs, ensures farmers’ direct participation, and promotes balanced regional development.
  1.  Food Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure; Establishment of modern testing laboratories, food safety certification centers, and quality control mechanisms to ensure compliance with national and international food safety standards and build consumer confidence in Indian processed foods.
  1. Human Resources and Entrepreneurship Development (HRD); This addresses the need for skilled manpower in the food processing sector. It funds training programs, entrepreneurship development initiatives, and capacity-building workshops.

Impact 

Launched in 2017, PMKSY has made measurable progress towards strengthening India’s food processing industry. According to the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), over 40 Mega Food Parks providing common facilities such as cold storage, packaging, logistics, and quality labs, enabling small processors and farmers to access modern infrastructure at affordable costs,  have been approved across the country, with several already operational. 

More than 300 projects have been sanctioned, improving the storage and transport of perishable commodities like fruits, vegetables, dairy, poultry, and fisheries,  under the Integrated Cold Chain scheme. Additionally, PMKSY has generated over 5 lakh jobs (direct and indirect), with a large share in rural areas. 

Creation/Expansion of Food Processing and Preservation Capacities (CEFPPC) and Agro-Processing Clusters have further encouraged small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to adopt modern technologies and expand capacity. 

The scheme has also attracted private investment, with sanctioned projects worth over ‘₹25,000 crore’ and improved export competitiveness and enhanced India’s global positioning by improving food safety standards and quality certification.

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Challenges 

Despite its measurable achievements, the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) faces several challenges that limit its overall impact.

  1. Implementation Delays: While there are more than 40 Mega Food Parks that have been approved, and some are already operational. Delays arise from issues of land acquisition, clearances, and financing, leading to a slowed pace at which benefits can reach farmers and processors.
  2. Uneven Regional Spread: Projects under PMKSY are concentrated in a few states with stronger industrial bases and better infrastructure, such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh. In contrast, eastern and northeastern states, where post-harvest losses are among the highest, have seen limited uptake due to weaker infrastructure and lower private participation. 
  1. Limited Awareness among Farmers:  Many small farmers remain unaware of the scheme or lack the institutional capacity to directly benefit from cold chains and processing units.
  1. Financial and Administrative Hurdles: Entrepreneurs and SMEs face difficulties in accessing credit, meeting compliance standards, and navigating bureaucratic procedures for approvals, leading to discouraged pPrivate investment.
  2. Capacity Utilization Issues: In operational Mega Food Parks and cold chain projects, utilization levels are often below expectations, due to fragile Farm-to-Market integration and challenges in securing an assured supply of raw material.
  3. Export Competitiveness Concerns: While PMKSY has improved food safety and quality assurance infrastructure, Indian food exports continue to face rejection in some markets due to compliance gaps. 

Way forward 

1. Strengthen Farmer Linkages: Dedicated mechanisms must be built to connect small and marginal farmers with processing clusters and Mega Food Parks. 

2. Improve Regional Balance: Greater incentives , targeted subsidies, and special infrastructure packages are needed to attract investment in eastern and northeastern states, where food wastage is higher and infrastructure is weaker.

3. Ease Financing and Approvals: Simplifying administrative processes and access to low-interest credit and risk-sharing mechanisms for SMEs and entrepreneurs can further encourage private participation.

4. Enhance Monitoring and Capacity Utilization: Strong monitoring mechanisms are required to track implementation progress, utilization of facilities, and outcomes at the ground level. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) can be leveraged to run facilities efficiently and improve sustainability.

5. Focus on Skill Development and Innovation: Scaling up training programs in food technology, packaging, and logistics can build a skilled workforce. Encouraging innovation in value-added products would enhance both domestic consumption and export competitiveness.

6. Digital Integration and Transparency: Introducing digital platforms for farmer registration, supply aggregation, and monitoring of processing units can improve efficiency and transparency.

Conclusion 

PMKSY represents a policy shift of the Indian government towards agriculture and its effort to modernise it, as it moves its focus to increase production to focus on building value through processing, and, storage and better farm to market linkage. However ‘its long-term success remains dependent on addressing the challenges of implementation delays, capacity utilization, and uneven infrastructure gaps’.

References

About the Author

Nisha Bharti is a postgraduate student in Public Administration from IGNOU Delhi and is currently an intern at IMPRI. She has gained valuable fieldwork experience through her engagements with the PRAJA Foundation, Teach For India, and SCERT Haryana, working across the policy, education, and NGO sectors.

 Acknowledgement: The author expresses her sincere gratitude to the IMPRI team and Ms. Aasthaba Jadeja for their invaluable guidance throughout the process. 

Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.

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