Badal asks industry players to partner with farmers to reduce loss

New Delhi, Sep 16 (KNN) Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has called upon industry players to partner with farmers to reduce post-harvesting losses and improve quality of the produce.

Speaking at the 12th Indo-US Economic Summit, the minister has shared a roadmap on how the industries and governments in the two countries can collaborate to make India the food factory of the world.

She said "Despite myriad challenges, Indian farmers have been producing enough to feed 1.3 billion people of India. Unfortunately, food technology has not matched this pace. 40 per cent food is still wasted at the harvest and transportation level in the country.”

"To bring this down, industry must partner with the farmers, improving the quality of our produce and ensure supplement income for our farmers," she said in a statement.

Talking about the new scheme SAMPADA, the minister said it is for development of small and medium scale processing clusters close to the growing areas of the specific farm produce.

She stated that further investments in building cold chains, food testing labs and storage hubs at farm level will help in building a strong ecosystem.

Badal also stressed upon the need to build Indian food as a brand in a big away as she shared how leading food retailers around the world are keen in manufacturing in India and taking that produce to their key markets. (KNN Bureau)