Know your Ministry - No. 26 - Food Processing Industries

Ministry of Food Processing Industries is headed by a Cabinet rank Minister as an additional charge along with portfolios under Rural Development, Agriculture, Family Welfare and Panchayat Raj assisted by a Minister of State. The Ministry has established its Goals and Roles to realise a strong and dynamic food processing sector through reduction in the wastage of perishable agricultural produce, enhancing shelf life of food products, ensuring value addition to agricultural produce, diversification &commercialization of agriculture, generation of employment, enhancing income of farmers and creating surplus for the export of agro & processed foods. The Ministry facilitates and acts as a catalyst to attract quality investments from within India and abroad with the aim of making food processing a national initiative.

With this overall objective, the Ministry aims to:

• Enhance farmer's income by better utilization and value addition of agricultural produce
• Minimize wastage at all stages in the food processing chain by the development of infrastructure for storage, transportation and processing of agro-food produce;
• Introduce of modern technology into the food processing industries from both domestic and external sources;
• Encourage R&D in food processing for product and process development and improved packaging;
• Provide policy support, and support for creation of Infrastructure, capacity expansion/ Upgradation and other supportive measures form the growth of this sectors;
• Promote export of processed food products.

Schemes: Ministry has published detailed information related to major Schemes Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY) and Mega Food Park, Cold Chain, Creation/Expansion of Food Processing/Preservation Capacities (Unit Scheme), Agro Processing Cluster, Creation of Backward and Forward Linkages, Food Safety & Quality Assurance Infrastructure, Setting UP/Up-gradation of Quality Control/Food Testing Laboratories, HACCP/ISO Standards /Food Safety/Quality Management Systems, Strengthening of Institutions and Operation Greens (Aatmanirbhar Bharath)

Institutions – National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) and Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT)

MIS: Scheme Management System, National Mission on Food Processing (NMFP) & TUS (link not accessible)

Documents in Public Domain: GOI Policy, Reports, Financial statements and Economic Databank.

CHALLENGES BEFORE THE MINISTRY

• Lack of access to modern technology & equipment, training, access institutional credit, basic awareness on quality control of products; and branding & marketing skills etc. due to availability of large consumer base domestically and having preference for fresh produce over processed food.
• Slow pace of urbanisation and low labour force participation have resulted in the preference for fresh foods.
• Supply side bottlenecks: Small and dispersed marketable surplus due to fragmented holdings, low farm productivity, high seasonality, perishability and intermediation result in lack of distribution on supply and quality, and in turn, impede processing and exports.
• Infrastructure bottlenecks: It is reported that more than 30 per cent of the produce from farm gate is lost due to inadequate cold chain infrastructure and inadequate logistics.
• High concentration of unorganised segments resulting in the inefficiencies in the existing production system and lack of investment in technology up gradation
• Deficiencies in the regulatory environment: Lack of integration & clarity of numerous laws, under the jurisdiction of different ministries and departments, governing food safety and packaging. The multiplicity of legislation leads to contradictions in specifications, conflicting approach due to lack of co-ordination and administrative delays.
• Lack of Holistic Approach due to the absence of vital peripheral infrastructural linkages and legislation for contract and corporate farming, inadequate implementation of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act and cumbersome procedures to avail grants.
• Inherent anomalies thwarting development of Food Processing Industries due to mounting cost of finance, lack of skilled and trained manpower, inadequate quality control and packaging units and high taxes and duties.

WAY FORWARD

• Geographically identify all potential food crops which grows in abundance in any single District and establish high class storage facilities besides exploring scope for the related industries nearby to generate Bye-products to minimize the transport. This can be achieved by expanding the present scheme under One District One Product (ODODP) approach to reap rich benefits of scale in terms of procurement of inputs, availing common services and marketing of products. The States need to identify food product for a district keeping in view the existing clusters and availability of raw material and allied sectors.
• Take up robust Policy initiatives to plug supply side and infrastructure bottlenecks to foster development of backward linkages crucial for securing scale and economic viability by evolving conducive regulatory framework for contract and corporate farming and encouraging commodity clusters and intensive livestock rearing.
• Promote holistic development through private and public sector participation while expounding a robust supporting framework
• Encourage technology up gradation of existing facilities and investment in development of ancillary sectors including research and development, packaging, food processing equipment manufacturing, food safety certifying agencies by extending fiscal incentives to investors.
• Remove impediments of multiple departments and laws in seeking approvals by bringing them under a single window thereby providing clarity in roles and channels of operational and service delivery.
• Ensure uniform implementation of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act to encourage private sector investment in infrastructure development.
• Hasten harmonization of indirect taxes by implementation of Goods & Services Tax, as aimed in the current budget, to warrant uniform tax structures across the country and reduce vast price differences in products.
• Facilitate Human resource development-to meet increasing demand for skilled manpower in the sector to optimize productivity.
• Stimulate industry, academia and government to put in combined efforts for development of specialized institutes and courses for providing training on managerial, safety and enforcements, technology and production, warehousing and distribution aspects.
• Encourage State Agricultural Universities to commence courses in food packaging, processing, bio-technology, information technology in agriculture and such allied fields.
• Optimize technology to strengthen Market Intelligence and Early Warning System (MIEWS) facilitating reduction of Food Loss and Waste due to faulty storage, transportation and processing of Agro-food produce.
• Explore all avenues to find by products for all agricultural produce to guarantee regular income to farmers through value addition and optimum utilisation.
• Nullify wastages at every stage in the food production and processing chain by technology optimisation from both domestic and external sources;
• Engage students and Research community to take up regular R & D activitiese in  food processing for product and process development including modern packaging techniques;
• Provide policy support, and support for creation of Infrastructure, capacity expansion/ Upgradation and other supportive measures form the growth of this sectors;
• Promote export of processed food products and create global demands for all our traditional products that possesses medicinal values for many global diseases.
• Though India is a major producer and exporter of agricultural produce at raw material stage, only less than 10 per cent of them are processed and traded. This needs a huge impetus from our Annual Finance Budgetary Allocation for this High potential Food Processing sector.