The Government of India has finally woken up to the need to take some positive steps towards effective food processing and with it the long-standing demands of Dr M S Swaminathan are likely to take shape. - The reason was/is/will clear - the politicians take great credit of Indian farmers and they often speak of not to change Agriculture lands to SEZ. But they are the people Destroying INDIA with most care.
Swaminathan, the man behind the Green Revolution in India had been urging the GoI to work 'very urgently' on food processing as most of what India produces goes to waste due to lack of cold storages, infrastructure facilities and food processing units.
With the completion of the draft of the National Food Processing Policy, the central government has now decided to set us a ministry with independent charge of Food Processing Industries. - Its going to take min 10 years and max. 100 yrs. B'coz they are busy with their name changing trend to their cities.
This policy will be tabled -- by December-end -- for the approval of the Union cabinet.
Meanwhile, a Processed Food Development Authority has been set up to rationalise the standards for the processed food industry.
Some facts:
- With a total food production of 601 million tonnes, India is the third largest food producer in the world, but 25-30 per cent of the food it produces is wasted. The food grains that India wastes is worth Rs 500 billion, which is more than what Australia produces every year!
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Even though India is the second largest producer of fruits (44 million tones) after Brazil, only 2 per cent is actually processed.
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India is the second largest producer of vegetables at 88 million tonnes, next only to China. India produces 13.3 per cent of the world's vegetables and wastes fruits and vegetables worth Rs 230 billion, which is more than what the UK consumes every year.
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Thanks to the White Revolution started by Dr Kurien in AMUL, Gujarat, India is the largest producer of milk in the world at 81 million tonnes per year. But only 15 per cent of the total production is processed. - the politicians sacked him with great honor.
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India has the largest livestock population in the world -- 43 per cent of the world buffalo population and 45 per cent of sheep!
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India is fifth in the world in poultry production.
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With over 8000 km-long coastline, India is the seventh largest as far as in marine land is concerned.
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Value addition in the processed food industry is only 7 per cent in India compared to 23 per cent in China, 45 per cent in the Philippines and 188 per cent in the UK.
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Investment approvals in the food processing industry were approximately Rs 700 billion but actual implementation was only 15 per cent, and that too mostly in soft drinks and liquor. - B'coz they bribe politicians to work.
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India's exports in food are only 0.9 per cent of the world food trade although it is the third largest producer.
At the recently concluded Foodpro 2001, the 4th Indian Food and Food Technology Fair in Chennai, Mallika Srinivasan -- the fair's chairperson -- said it was aimed at tapping the huge opportunities that exist in the Indian agriculture and food processing sector.
"Foodpro 2001 seeks to provide an important forum and a platform for all the stakeholders in the food industry including the government to take stock, showcase existing capabilities and capacities, and review and strategies in order to leverage our natural endowments and position India on the international food scenario as the Global Food Factory."
Inaugurating Foodpro 2001, D P Tripathi, the secretary for food processing said the industry would be declared a priority area and almost the entire sector would be delicensed. - At last they thought of it as priority 1, Thats a Good news to all Indians. But Implementation (hope to happen in the near future)?
Like the Industrial Parks, the ministry intended to set up Food Parks at various places in the country where common infrastructure facilities like cold storage, processing machinery, laboratories, effluent treatment plants, etc would be available.
It had already approved 20 Food Park projects, and the one in Tamil Nadu would be run by the private sector.
Agricultural Export Zone is also a new concept developed by the ministry.
The secretary said that an investment of Rs 400 billion is needed to increase the processing level from 2 per cent to 10 per cent in the next ten years. This investment is expected to provide direct employment to 7.5 million people and then the value addition will rise from 7 per cent to 35 per cent. So, he said, it was essential to have adequate support and partnership from the private sector.
The Confederation of Indian Industry has put forth a three-point road map "for ushering in a food revolution in India":
Creation of an environment conducive to rapid growth of the food processing sector,
Improving productivity and efficiency of Indian agriculture and food processing sector, and
Creation and implementation of an aggressive, highly focused export strategy.
"We at CII believe that this three-point road map to future would truly revolutionise agriculture in India, improve its productivity and create a vibrant food processing industry," said Srinivasan.
