The government on Friday said that various schemes to promote food processing have helped reduce post-harvest losses in fruits and vegetables over the last five years while emphasising the need to further develop the sector to boost farmers' income and meet growing food demand.
Food Processing Industries Minister Chirag Paswan, speaking at the SUFALAM event organised by NIFTEM-Kundli in Haryana, said the food processing sector has a crucial role in achieving India's goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047.
"So far, we have not been able to tap and explore the sector fully. In terms of exports and processing, we are nowhere at present although there is endless scope to develop further," Paswan said.
The minister added that India could emerge as a 'global food basket' given the sector's huge potential.
The government is working to establish an ecosystem to boost food processing through various schemes and by encouraging startups, though Paswan noted that 'it is still not enough as potential is huge.'
Food Processing Industries Secretary Subrata Gupta said the ministry was 'relentlessly pursuing projects' to support the creation of cold chains and other food processing infrastructure to reduce food wastage.
"In fact, over the last five years, there has been a decline of food wastage because of lack of processing," he said.
Gupta highlighted the challenge of feeding a growing global population, expected to increase by 2 billion from the current 8 billion. He noted that 77% of agricultural land is used to grow food for animals, which provides only 18% of calories and 37% of proteins consumed by humans.
The secretary emphasised the need for alternative protein sources, mentioning that NIFTEM has been sponsoring research in frontier areas of processing, including cultured meat and plant-based meat technologies.
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