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Food processing sector critical for Indian economy as well as job creation: Niti Aayog CEO
Dec-05-2022

Niti Aayog CEO Parameswaran Iyer has said that the food processing sector is critical for the Indian economy as well as job creation and stressed on ramping up production and exports of processed items. He said there is a need to encourage the MSME sector to enter the food processing sector, which he described as a very important sector for the health of the economy and people. He underlined that food processing can boost farmers income and also help in achieving nutritional goals. He said there is a need to augment primary processing at farm level.

Stating that food security has become important in the current global context, the Niti Aayog CEO said the government has taken a number of steps in this regard. He highlighted that there has been a steady growth in agriculture. On the food processing front also, he said a number of initiatives have been taken by the government, including the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. He added that this is a very, very important program of the government, which is really looking to incentivise investment, but manufacturing in very critical strategic sectors such as food processing.

Iyer said it is crucial to enable distributed primary processing towards building up scale for higher value processing. He noted that scaling up of the food processing ecosystem is also going to have a direct impact on improving farmers incomes, which is a very high policy priority for the government. He said ‘So on the one hand, it will allow for better price realisation. On the other hand, of course, it's going to help us reach our nutrition goals.’ He also emphasised on incentivising farmers to move towards better cropping practices, giving them a better return on the investment and increasing their incomes.

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