The Telangana government has proposed to establish a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) for food processing units in Kamareddy district and has planned to encourage industrialists to set up rice and oil mills, among other food processing units.
The SEZ will be focussed on the industrial development of the district. The Centre is also encouraging the establishment of food processing units in the region as Kamareddy has easy access to all the facilities such as transportation and water supply.
The officials of the district administration, including mandal tahsildars and revenue officers, have started to search for a 1,000 acre space. Apart from some privately-run solar power generation units and two sugar factories in the Kamareddy division, since the district does not have too many industries, but they have national highways and railway connectivity.
Explaining the utility of the project, while talking to FnB News, Dr T Jyothirmayi, Sr Principal Scientist & Head at CSIR- Central Food Technological Research Institute, Hyderabad, said, “Any food industry not only cater to employment generation, it also provides edible materials either ready-to-use or ready-to-cook forms. For example, paddy we cannot consume and after dehusking only, rice can be cooked and can be consumed. From rice bran, oil can be extracted and can be used for cooking.”
She added, “All seeds need to be extracted either cold-pressed or solvent-extracted, and the oil can be used for cooking and the leftover meal has many applications. Highly perishable fruits and vegetables can be made into juices, squashes, jams, pickles etc. Many enterprises can be set up and food processing operations are less polluting and mostly eco-friendly.”
B Dayakar Rao, Principal Scientist, IIMR, Telangana said, “The decision by the government is really good. This move will also stop migration from rural to urban areas. Kamareddy is close to Nizamabad district which is a highly irrigated district with all the irrigation available with rice, turmeric and sugarcane being highly grown and many other commercial crops are also being grown in that area.”
He added, “Any agro-based industry will prevent rural migration, so setting up an industry in town close to villages, people will keep working in that area. Other than this, the farmers in Nizamabad district feel that they should have a separate Turmeric Board, although the Central government is not in favour of the same.”
With regard to the warehousing sector, Amit Chopra, DGM-pan India, Coldrush Logistics, Telangana, said, “If we are talking about the cold-chain sector, the government has to think about subsidy, so the players will be attracted more to Kamareddy to set-up a plant, because the cost of plant is around 8.5 crore.”
He stated, “During this pandemic, the essential goods are consumed more, we are the warehouse players, the government has to support the warehouse players with subsidy planning like how they launched their Aatmanirbhar loan. The infrastructure and implentation of the Kamareddy project plays an important role and it has to be developed properly. If the infrastructure is developed properly, then there will be all types of labour in that area. So, this project is definitely a good initiative by the government.”
Meanwhile, the government has decided to provide Godavari water to the upland areas through the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation packages. The proposed SEZ will also be addressing the farmers’ issues and unemployment problems in the district.