Nanjangud Rasabale, Kodagu Coffee, Mandya Jaggery in the list of products to be promoted
Mysore/Mysuru: To tackle the economic slump resulting from COVID-19 pandemic, the State Government is pushing for the ‘One District One Product’ (ODOP) scheme with an intention to promote micro food processing industry.
The scheme has been launched by the Union Government where a cluster approach will be adopted while providing credit-linked subsidy for setting up two lakh micro processing units across the country with an estimated cost of Rs. 10,000 crore.
Under the scheme, one product from the district will be promoted and Nanjangud Rasabale from Mysuru district, coffee from Kodagu and jaggery from Mandya find a mention in the list prepared by the State Government to be promoted under the scheme.
Other products include bakery products from Bengaluru, seafood from Udupi and onions from Bagalkot, red gram from Kalaburagi, lemon from Vijayapura, mango from Haveri, Byadagi Menasinakai (chillies) from Gadag, ginger from Bidar, fig from Ballari, guava from Koppal district, spices from Chikkamagaluru district and pineapples from Shivamogga.
The famous and delicious banana variety Nanjangud Rasabale is mainly grown in Mysuru district. Rasabale is famous for its special taste and aroma and the fruits are always in high demand in the market with maximum price compared to other banana varieties.
A few years back, this variety was grown in thousands of acres surrounding Nanjangud and Mysuru but now the cultivation is restricted to over 30 acres. Owing to the specific and rare qualities like taste, smell and pulp quality, the Nanjangud Rasabale was given the Geographical Indication (GI) protection in 2005 under the Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999.
Likewise, Kodagu is known for its coffee production. India ranks fifth in the world in terms of coffee production and 71 percent of this coffee comes from Kodagu. It is also nicknamed the ‘coffee cup’ of India where some of the world’s best varieties of coffee — Robusta and Arabica — are grown.
Under the scheme, each State would identify food products for a district keeping in view the existing clusters and availability of raw materials. The Central Government has approved Karnataka’s list under the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) scheme.
This would help small businesses involved in the selected product to get Government support in seeking loans and gaining training to market their products. Support for common infrastructure and branding and marketing would be done for the products identified under the scheme.
Under the scheme, existing individual micro food processing units wanting to upgrade their units can avail credit-linked capital subsidy at 35 percent of the eligible project cost with a maximum ceiling of Rs. 10 lakh per unit.
This post was published on January 5, 2021 6:35 pm