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Sahai insists on industrialising agriculture
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Monday, 29 March, 2010, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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India needs to industrialise agriculture and the ministry of food processing industries is increasingly striving to make this a reality, said minister of food processing industries Subodh Kant Sahai.
Stressing on the need for an effective post-harvest management, Sahai said that creation of infrastructure like cold chains, supply chains, processing hub and the like was needed. This would go a long way in preserving processed food and increasing the shelf life of the product. Food processing sector relates to the conversion of agri-produce into finished value added variety with improved and desirable quality attributes.
The efficient and technological know-how right from harvesting, handling and transportation to the processing, packaging, storage and distribution was inevitable. India being mainly an agrarian country, with majority of population residing in rural India, agriculture was the main earning tool. The fresh agri-produce was either found to be damaged or spoiled before it reached the market or precessing plant, resulting in huge qualitative, quantitative and economic loss, hence the need for industrialisation.
Sahai said encouraging contract farming would be an important step towards industrialisation of agriculture as it would assure income to farmers and quality produce to the processor.
He credited his ministry with boosting the level of processing from 6 % in 2005 to over 11% in 2009. Also the level of value addition had gone up from 20% in 2006 to 26% in 2009, which he said was a remarkable improvement.
Subsidy for mega food parks, unified law in the form of Food Safety and Standards Act, training through institutions like National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management and IT and custom benefits were some of the triggers to the growth of the processing industry.
However, Sahai said apart from the schemes implemented by his ministry additional measures aimed at increasing the flow of credit for technology upgradation/establishment/modernisation of food processing industries for an upgradation of their processing capabilities were needed. He said that his government was facing a huge demand for credit and it was not possible to cover every applicant. According to Sahai, rationalisation of the tax structures was necessary for the faster growth of the sector.
In its motive to industrialise the agriculture sector, the ministry of food processing has been extending support to the Research and Development by providing financial assistance to the concerned institution or organisations through the scheme of R&D in food processing sector. The main objective of the scheme is development and standardisation of processed food, packaging, value addition, improvement in shelf life, development of rapid testing kits for detection of biological and chemical contamination, improved storage, transport and distribution by designing the appropriate equipment / machinery and the system as required. The Human Resource Development scheme envisaged financial assistance by way of grants to the Food Processing Training Centres, creation of infrastructure for running degree / diploma courses in Food Processing Universities etc.
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