Union Minister elaborates on initiatives for food processing units

Rameshwar Teli, stated that, India has been at the forefront of food grain production globally. He also thanked the scientists for their contribution towards production of sufficient food to feed the population. We have a market in food that is booming with an expected figure of Rs 61 lakh crore in food retail by 2020. India is the world leader in production of milk, banana, mangoes, spices, shrimp, pulses and second cereals, vegetables and tea.

Post-harvest loses have plagued the supply chain industry and it is disheartening that every year, substantial produce is lost. Estimated loss in durables is 3-10 per cent, semi-perishables and commodities such as milk, fish, meat and eggs about 10-20 per cent and 10-20 per cent in fruits and vegetables and 5-16 per cent in horticultural produce.

In view of the Prime Minister’s Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojna, it is important to understand how the farmer’s (Kisan’s) income be enhanced through his assets (Sampada). The scheme launched with an outset budget of Rs 6,000 crore aim at alleviating the poor state of farmers and help them achieve true value of their produce.

The food processing industries sums up about 32 per cent of India’s total food market. Food processing is an ever changing field wherein there are new discoveries almost every day and the techniques add on to our knowledge repository to better process, preserve and enrich the food products and their intermediaries.

The MoFPI has been instrumental in ensuring the cause of helping farmers and have launched 42 mega food parks. The Ministry also provides financial support to the tune of 35 per cent of the total cost of plant and machinery for encouraging growth. In addition, the government has entrusted specialised agro-processing financial institutions to finance/refinance the food processing sector and has launched neoteric initiatives such as ‘operation greens,’ to monitor price fluctuations, added the minister.