NDA (II) 2017 GAT Q97: SAMPADA scheme is being implemented by the Ministry

Q: What is the answer to NDA (II) 2017 GAT Q97?

C. Correct — C, Food Processing Industries. SAMPADA stands for the Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters, and the name itself carries the answer — agro and marine processing is the business of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries. It is a central sector umbrella scheme approved with an allocation of six thousand crore rupees for the period 2016 to 2020, running with the fourteenth Finance Commission cycle. It gathers seven component schemes under one head: mega food parks; integrated cold chain and value addition infrastructure; creation and expansion of food processing and preservation capacities; infrastructure for agro-processing clusters; creation of backward and forward linkages; food safety and quality assurance infrastructure; and human resources and institutions. The stated aim was to leverage about thirty-one thousand four hundred crore rupees of investment, handle 334 lakh tonnes of agricultural produce and benefit twenty lakh farmers by 2019-20.

NDA (II) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 97 of 150

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

SAMPADA scheme is being implemented by the Ministry of

(a)Finance
(b)Housing and Urban Affairs
(c)Food Processing Industries
(d)Earth Sciences

Answer

Why

Correct — C, Food Processing Industries. SAMPADA stands for the Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters, and the name itself carries the answer — agro and marine processing is the business of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries. It is a central sector umbrella scheme approved with an allocation of six thousand crore rupees for the period 2016 to 2020, running with the fourteenth Finance Commission cycle. It gathers seven component schemes under one head: mega food parks; integrated cold chain and value addition infrastructure; creation and expansion of food processing and preservation capacities; infrastructure for agro-processing clusters; creation of backward and forward linkages; food safety and quality assurance infrastructure; and human resources and institutions. The stated aim was to leverage about thirty-one thousand four hundred crore rupees of investment, handle 334 lakh tonnes of agricultural produce and benefit twenty lakh farmers by 2019-20.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Finance — The Ministry of Finance provides the money for central schemes but does not run sectoral programmes of this kind. A scheme built around cold chains, food parks and processing capacity belongs to the line ministry for that sector.
(b)Housing and Urban Affairs — That ministry runs the urban programmes — the Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT, the Swachh Bharat Mission for urban areas and the urban wing of the housing-for-all scheme. Agro-processing clusters sit outside its remit.
(d)Earth Sciences — The Ministry of Earth Sciences handles meteorology, ocean science, seismology and polar research through bodies such as the India Meteorological Department and the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research. The word marine in the scheme's expansion is the bait in this option, but marine processing means processing fish and seafood, not studying the sea.

Concept

India loses a large share of its fruit, vegetable, dairy, meat and fish output between the farm and the consumer for want of cold storage, transport and processing capacity. The scheme's answer is to build the missing infrastructure in a linked chain rather than in isolated pieces — a mega food park with common facilities, cold chains and reefer transport to hold produce, processing units to add value, and backward and forward linkages so that farmers and markets connect to the units.

Anchor the scheme to the 2017 examination and note one change since. SAMPADA was later renamed the Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana and continued with fresh outlays and periods beyond the original 2016 to 2020 window. The umbrella name has changed but the ministry has not, and the component schemes such as the mega food parks and the cold chain scheme are the parts most often asked about on their own. In 2017 the Minister for Food Processing Industries was Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Key facts

SAMPADA stands for the Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters.
It is a central sector scheme of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, approved with six thousand crore rupees for 2016 to 2020.
It has seven component schemes, including mega food parks, cold chain infrastructure and agro-processing clusters.
It was expected to leverage about thirty-one thousand four hundred crore rupees of investment and to benefit twenty lakh farmers by 2019-20.
It was later renamed the Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana.

The seven components under SAMPADA

Mega Food Parks→Common processing infrastructure with collection centres and primary processing centres

Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure→Cold stores, reefer transport and ripening chambers to cut post-harvest loss

Food Processing and Preservation Capacities→Setting up and expanding individual processing units

Infrastructure for Agro-processing Clusters→Cluster-level facilities linking farms to processors

Backward and Forward Linkages→Connecting farmers to units and units to markets

Food Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure and Human Resources and Institutions→Testing laboratories, standards and training

Every component is about processing agricultural and marine produce, which places the scheme with the Ministry of Food Processing Industries — option (c).

Study next

Mega Food Parks and the cold chain scheme as standalone programmesFood processing in India — share of output processed, post-harvest losses and the reasons for themOperation Greens and the tomato, onion and potato value chainAgricultural marketing — the state APMC Acts, eNAM and farmer producer organisationsMinistry-to-scheme mapping across the major central schemes

Common traps

Reading marine in the scheme's name as oceanography and choosing the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
Assigning any scheme with a large outlay to the Ministry of Finance.
Treating SAMPADA and Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana as different schemes; the second is the renamed version of the first.

NDA asks scheme-to-ministry questions in almost every paper, and the acronym's expansion usually contains the clue.

Related PYQs

UPSC_2011_GS1_Q352011Open & attempt →

With what purpose is the Government of India promoting the concept of "Mega Food Parks"? 1. To provide good infrastructure facilities for the food processing industry. 2. To increase the processing of perishable items and reduce wastage. 3. To provide emerging and eco-friendly food processing technologies to entrepreneurs. Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 2 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer(b) 1 and 2 only

Asks about the very component that sits inside SAMPADA — the Mega Food Parks scheme, whose objects are infrastructure for processing and the reduction of waste in perishables.

NDA_GAT_2018_II_Q1462018Open & attempt →

'Seva Bhoj Yojana', a scheme of the Government of India that seeks to reimburse Central share of CGST and IGST on Food/Prasad/Langar/Bhandara offered by religious institutions, is introduced recently by which one of the following Ministries?

(a) The Ministry of Culture
(b) The Ministry of Home Affairs
(c) The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
(d) The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

Answer(a) The Ministry of Culture

The same scheme-to-ministry pattern one paper later, and a warning against the obvious guess — a scheme about food went to the Ministry of Culture because the institutions it serves are cultural and religious, not because of the word food.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The Mega Food Parks scheme is a component of which umbrella scheme?
- (a)Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana
- (b)SAMPADA, later Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana
- (c)Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana
- (d)Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
Answer(b) SAMPADA, later Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana — the umbrella scheme of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
practice — not a real PYQ
The expansion of SAMPADA is
- (a)Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters
- (b)Scheme for Agricultural Marketing and Public Distribution Assistance
- (c)Sustainable Agriculture Mission for Production and Development of Agriculture
- (d)Scheme for Advanced Marine Production and Development of Aquaculture
Answer(a) Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters.