Crop-Specific Infrastructure Creation Scheme Soon - Food Processing Minister

A scheme for crop specific infrastructure creation is to be introduced shortly, stated Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Minister of Food Processing Industries, at the 6th Cold Chain Summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Ministry of Agriculture and National Center for Cold Chain Development (NCCD).

The Minister said that the scheme would enable farmers to become entrepreneurs and start their own food processing or cold chain transportation ventures. Cold chain development would contribute to the target of doubling farmers' incomes, reduce waste, and strengthen the agri supply chains.

Badal added that with FDI in place, farm produce could be directly linked with retail outlets. She suggested creation of FPOs (Farmer Producer Organisation) for crop specific clusters for top agri and horticultural produce in the states. The Minister asked CII to create a task force to link these FPOs to Industry.

S.K. Pattanayak, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, urged more investments in the agriculture sector and highlighted the necessity for cold chains. He added that the Government has several schemes for post harvest management and development, including cold chains.

J P Meena, Additional Secretary, MoFPI, outlined the impact of the GST regime on the food sector and associated cold chain infrastructure. He urged industry to adapt to the impending changing regime to maximize efficiencies.

T. Nanda Kumar, Former Chairman National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), Chairman-CII Jury Cold Chain Awards, called for right infrastructure support to the food processing industry. The industry needs better quality raw material both in terms of intrinsic quality and in terms of food safety. He also urged for the need of business models which are purely not price arbitrage, but will give larger benefits to farmers and which will reduce wastage and increase turnover.

Pawanexh Kohli, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Advisor, National Centre for Cold Chain Development, stated the need to increase farmer's opportunity to sell more, and linking them to more markets.

Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry, mentioned that CII has been working on building a strong service portfolio in cold chain and will continue to engage in training and capacity building activities, promote partnerships to strengthen the cold chain infrastructure in the country, and develop post- harvest management protocols as avenues for strengthening crop - specific cold chain infrastructure.

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