Efforts to Include food processing in school curriculum on:Minister

Ahmedabad

Lamenting that the total food processing capacity of the country was less than eight percent and food items worth around 92000 crore were wasted every year, Union Minister of state for food processing industry Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti today informed that efforts were on to include the subject of food processing in the curriculum of primary schools to address the problem by creating ‘awareness from the very beginning’.

Addressing the inaugural session of the 7 th international summit on FAD (Food Processing, Agribusiness& Dairy) at Gujarat University Exhibition Center here Sadhvi Jyoti said, ‘ we our in talks with the Human Resource Development minster for inclusion of chapters on food processing in the curriculum of schools. If it is done even the small children will be aware of it and will help decrease the wastage. I have talked to the HRD minister and will talk to her again in this regard.’

Claiming that the food processing sector has huge potential with regard to job creation and foreign currency earning by means of large scale export, the minister said, ‘ we have currently given employment to around 17 lakh people and earn US $ 33 billion through exports but we can do much more. If we increase the percentage of food processing from current 8 percent we can give employment to many more. In fact this sector can give a boost to the 70 percent population of the country which was dependent on the agriculture sector. That is why our Prime Minister has included the food processing industry sector among the 25 priority sectors selected under Make in India campaign ,’

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The minister also asserted the need for small cold storage chains managed by village farmers saying they can prove more beneficial than the mega food parks and bigger processing units in managing the food wastage. ‘ We have recommended for such small cold storage chains. If a farmer is having such a facility he will be able to store his produce and sell it at appropriate time to fetch maximum value for it. It will also help in lessening the existing gap of around 50 percent with regard to the cold storage needs of the country. It is not that the bigger units were not useful but they need bigger land and higher investments. ,’

She also elaborated on the various incentives being provided by her department for the promotion of processing units and suggested the entrepreneurs to keep in mind the land and raw material (agri products) availability while choosing a site for it.

Talking about Gujarat, the minister said that the state has the potential to lead the country in food processing sector. But she also said that despite a good deal of progress, the state need to do much more looking at the vast opportunity and capacity of its agriculture sector. She also appealed the investors to invest money in the sector.

– DeshGujarat