New Delhi, June 5 (KNN) The Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal said that a new scheme 'Gram Samridhi Yojana', aimed at benefitting unorganized food processing sector, has been framed in collaboration with the World Bank and would soon be rolled out.

She said, “The program will focus on micro enterprises with capitalization of less than 10 lakh rupees. The aim is to target small farmers and the Ministry will aim to facilitate creation of 60 to 70 thousand such units within a short time.”

The pilot project will be done in four states and initiative will be expanded subsequently, she added.

She made the above remarks while addressing the media after resuming office as Union Minister for Food Processing for the second time.

“For the next five years employment generation is going to my focus, especially in rural areas, so that children of farmers do not have to look for employment elsewhere. Farmers should turn into job creators from being job seekers," Badal said.

Stressing on her focus areas, Minister added “NBFC to provide funds for Food Processing Sector will also be my focus. I will also push for a National Food Processing Policy which I had presented in the last day of the last session”.

She highlighted that “World Food India is almost here and it will be bigger and better than last time. I will soon take a review meeting of Officers to understand the progress that has happened in the past few months”.

The Minister also welcomed the new Minister of State Rameswar Teli and said that she hoped that with his arrival, food processing sector in North East will get a boost. North East has a tremendous potential and it will be one of her focus geographies henceforth.