Friday, February 15, 2008

Food Processing SEZ Planned by IFFCO in Andhra Pradesh

by Phillip Horton

The Special Economic Zone or the SEZs in India are already experiencing great protests from those who have to part with their lands which especially include farmers. The protest for the proposed SEZ of TATA in Kolkata is still raging. However against the backdrop of the protest to the SEZs in the different parts of the country the planned SEZ by IFFCO seems to be quite different. IFFCO is the well known fertilizer cooperative of India and now it has plans to set up a SEZ in Andhra Pradesh in India which will be mainly for food processing. The planned food processing SEZ of IFFCO will be based on agriculture and thus it will be the first of its kind SEZ in India and hence it assumes a considerable significance in the many SEZ projects of India. U.S. Awasthi, who is the managing director of IFFCO while on a visit to Bhubaneswar in Orrisa, said that IFFCO is in the process of setting up the agriculture based food processing SEZ. The proposed SEZ of IFFCO will be located in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh and IFFCO will be investing Rs. 2,400 crore in this project.

The food processing SEZ of IFFCO is a part of the fertilizer cooperative’s diversification plans. The SEZ in AP is named as the Kisan SEZ and hence farmers can definitely expect some good news for them from this SEZ. SEZs otherwise for farmers of India has some very unpleasant financial implications and this SEZ by IFFCO seem to be working in the interest of the farmers. In this SEZ of IFFCO the cooperatives of farmers will be participating as the shareholders which make this SEZ one of India’s first and unique SEZ where farmers can have their share in the SEZ. The Indian central government has already sanctioned this project and it is expected that with this SEZ the future SEZs in India will have to face less protests by the farmers. The SEZ of IFFCO would be developed on an area of about 3,000 acres and it is also located in the vicinity of the Krishnapatnam port.

The distinctive thing about the Kisan SEZ is that there will not be any displacement of the land owners which mainly happens in the development of new SEZs, because the land is already owned by IFFCO according to the managing director of IFFCO. Different industries in this SEZ will be provided the most advanced infrastructure facilities but the main emphasis of SEZ will remain on the industries that deal with food processing and whose base is agriculture. The employment generation from this SEZ is expected to stand at 10,000 and the additional economic development of the region is also going to be great. IFFCO also has plans to open the technical training institute so that training in the areas of agriculture and post harvesting methods can be imparted. Thus the Kisan SEZ will serve as an ideal example of SEZ in India and there will be less clashes and protests against the SEZs.

 

 

 

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