Twenty projects with a total investment of Rs. 773.75 crore is coming to Karnataka’s way in the agriculture and food processing sectors. Karnataka Udyog Mitra (KUM), a single-widow agency, and the State High-level Clearance Committee (SHLCC) headed by the Chief Minister have cleared 10 projects with a total investment of Rs. 451.69 crore, while another 10 worth Rs. 322.06 crore are expected to be cleared in the next few days. Officials in Karnataka State Agricultural Produce Processing and Export Corporation (KAPPEC) Ltd. revealed that various companies had committed to invest Rs. 60,531.50 crore during the Global Agribusiness and Food Processing Summit held in Bangalore in December 2011.
Bangalore-based Zakinl Biotech Pvt. Ltd. had invested Rs. 48.7 crore on a processing unit in Chamarajanagar and is expected to commission the project in June. The processing unit would come up on 142.13 acres of land and would handle 1,800 tonnes of herbs, 4,000 tonnes of vegetables, 5,800 tonnes of finished and frozen food products, officials said. Shri Kotresh Food Products Pvt. Ltd. have invested Rs. 22.17 crore to set up a tissue culture plant in Bijapur which is expected to commence in June, 2012. The plant would come up on 42.3 acres of land and it had primary and secondary green house facilities, a 1,000-tonne bio-compost plant, and ready built/developed plots for the biotech industry with necessary infrastructure facilities.
Other approved projects by the KUM and SHLCC are Janachetana Agro Foods Pvt. Ltd.’s food processing, logistics and warehousing project in Gadag (Rs. 95 crore); Delta Crop Sciences Pvt. Ltd.’s seed processing plant with farmers knowledge centre in Bijapur (Rs. 9.44 crore); Annapurna Paddy Processing’s rice mill in Raichur (Rs. 25 crore); Bluberry Farms Pvt. Ltd.’s horticulture hi-tech cultivation park in Tumkur (Rs. 9.44 crore); V.R. Patil and Associates’ poultry farm in Koppal (Rs. 5.98 crore); Ferns & Roses’ floriculture and R&D facility in Tumkur (Rs. 32 crore); Siddhi Vinayak Logistic Ltd.’s agri-infrastructure project in Bangalore Urban (Rs. 160.6 crore); and Sri Chamundeswari Sugars’s integrated complex of maize grinding and ethanol processing plant in Hassan (Rs. 125.8 crore). Ten investment proposals with total investments worth Rs. 322.06 crore are expected to be cleared in the next meeting of KUM and SHLCC.
