Food Processing in India-Present Status and Way Forward

Abstract

The Food Processing sector in India has a quintessential role in networking Indian farmers to consumers in the domestic and international markets. Demand for processed food items is set to increase in India in the coming years providing opportunities for greater value addition, lower wastages and alternative employment opportunities. Various analysis have reported that outcome from food processing firms have been lucrative, but the value addition component needs to increase significantly. Organizations like Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) is making concrete efforts to encourage investments across various value chain. Selection of right process, effective package of equipment with trained manpower coupled with effective strategy and initiatives is the key to promote food processing sector. Under National Agricultural Research System many such technologies have been developed which enables setting up micro and small food processing industries in production catchment. Some of these technologies which could be adopted for doubling the farmer’s income in briefed.