Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Badal has said that the government is aiming at linking states in the country for ensuring easy transportation of food to places where there is high demand under the Operation Greens programme. Badal revealed this while speaking after inaugurating the 2nd Indus Food trade fair being held at Noida from January 14 to 15, 2019.
Badal stated that transportation of perishables was a priority, wherein chances of wastage was high. “This would ease the burden on farmers from the production surplus states who often fail to get decent remunerative prices of the produce,” she said.
According to Badal, the Union government has already started working in the direction of linking of states for which a mechanism is being devised that will ensure states with excess production are able to transport to other states where there is demand.
In this regard, she informed that tie-ups with organisations like NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India) are being forged.
Also investment in the Indian food processing sector has crossed US$1 billion under the current government, pointed out Badal.
It is pertinent to mention that Government of India has approved the Central sector scheme Operation Greens, which is aimed at integrated development of value chain for the commodities - Tomato, Onion and Potato or TOP and the MoFPI (Ministry of Food Processing Industries) has, in this regards, also put out operational guidelines recently.
A budget of Rs 500 crore has been approved for the same for fiscal 2018-19 and 2019-20. In the first year, Rs 200 crore shall be allocated while Rs 300 crore are kept for the second year spending through MoFPI.
Meanwhile, Indus Food witnessed more than 600 global buyers from F&B industries visiting to source from India. The buyers included importers, supermarket chains, government bodies, major wholesaler groups, food service companies, and food distribution and trading companies. Around 400 Indian companies took part in the event, which was promoted by the Ministry of Commerce.
