Food processing ministry to coordinate with other ministries to avoid duplication

The Ministry of Food Processing Industry (MoFPI) plans to hold a meeting with related ministries to reduce duplication of functions. The meeting with the ministries of agriculture, commerce and rural development is expected to take place next week.

MoFPI believes there is a “duplication of functions” among certain divisions under these ministries which slows down the pace of growth. For instance, the National Horticulture Board under the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) under the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of MSMEs (most food processing units are in small industries bracket) are entrusted with similar functions as of MoFPI.

To avoid such situations, MoFPI also plans to have a central database to centralise information on all the projects and development work taken up by these ministries. This is aimed at increasing coordination among each other so that if a particular project is not executed in one of these ministries, the other ministry can take it up and the applicant doesn’t need to apply again and again with various ministries.

“As the finance minister laid special emphasis on need to have stronger measures in food processing area, we are meeting these ministries to combine their efforts in the area and bring more synergies in our efforts to do the required task,” Ashok Sinha, secretary of the Ministry of Food Processing Industry, told Business Standard.

MoFPI says another objective to pool resources as its own is very limited. The ministry got an allocation of Rs 400 crore in the 2010-11 Budget, against its request for Rs 1,300 crore. The country widely lacks infrastructure (warehouse, cold storage chains, proper logistics) to stop food/agro-produce wastage and the allocated funds are not sufficient to develop the infrastructure at the speed it is needed. If all these ministries pool their resources for the task, there will be more efficiency and faster development, says Sinha.

India wastes around 30 per cent of its produce annually, worth Rs 50,000 crore. Food shortage and inflation problem could be sorted out to a great extent by reducing this wastage by setting up the required infrastructure and increasing the usage of processed food, notes Sinha.

The government seeks help from the rural development ministry to develop roads and transportation to facilitate the movement of farm produce. The cost of produce reaching processing units is very high because of logistics. World over, the cost is 5-6 per cent of the finished product, but in India it is 12-14 per cent. This is one of biggest hassles in growth of food processing in India.

Apart from cooperation on infrastructure, MoFPI also wants to have a greater engagement from the Ministry of Agriculture for facilitation of proper agro-produce and the Department of Animal Husbandary and Dairying under it to grow the food processing industry in the country.