Food processing industries Meeting 6/10/2009 1300 Hrs. Vigyan Bhavan.

Respected Chair,other dignitaries on the dais, Ministers, official, media and dear Friends.

I am very honored and pleased to be attending this meeting of State Ministers. The Food processing Ministry has been very dynamic in recent times inspiring all of us to work harder and better. I wish and pray that this phase of dynamism results in tangible gains to the consumers, producers and farmers.
Food processing has to happen with the best technology in the grass root level. While larger concerns may be aggregating technology and bringing in high growth dividends, if must not be lost sight of that the sixty crore farmers at the bottom line of our economy forms our biggest concern.
We have had a set of indigenous food products which still remain dear, with a tinge of nostalgia to all of us. Some of these products have immense commercial potential too. Dairy products and fish pickles are examples. With a burgeoning expatriate population, the demand from Indian ethnic consumers located outside the country itself is a good demand to satisfy. If we could link a decentralized production process, Self Help Groups and women power at the bottom of the pyramid with suitable institutions which function as demand aggregators and forge links with foreign export targets, the market can be captured in India and abroad.

We need suitable investments in the backward states and districts in the sector linked to sites for agricultural and horticultural production. A good example is basing Mango based industries near the intensive Mango production belts in UP or down south. Kerala and Orissa may have huge potential for marine products. Meat products are already a huge export earner.

The agricultural research system needs to factor food processing as a large area needing more attention. Though many institutions are working in the sector, I believe better coordination is called for. States may be well advised to have food processing cells/desks in their Agricultural Ministries operationalized for focusing on the area. Whether our efforts will bear fruit lies what it holds for the farmer –producer. The large number of farmers accommodated in the primary sector with inadequate inputs is at the root of our problems in the farm sector. The micro food processing industry must now absorb many of them, if not a majority and take them out of farm distress in adverse weather etc by realizing market potential.
Employment in the rural sector also needs to be linked with the needs of the food processing enterprises which will both add value to nutrition and give valuable year round employment for the rural poor.
Developing such a micro view of the position of the food processing industries is as vital as promoting larger enterprises and commerce which only a few of us can participate fully now. I hope that the deliberations during the day and later develop on this and address larger issues which this sector is fully capable of tackling now.
I wish your later deliberations and efforts the very best.

Jai Hind.