Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Dairying and Animal Husbandry, Government of Haryana, OP Dhankar emphasised on the potential of the state to become a peri-urban agriculture and dairy hub in the region. Dhankar was speaking at the CII Northern Region Conference on Food Processing and Dairy at New Delhi today.
Having proximity to Delhi-NCR, Government of Haryana sees great potential to provide direct selling platform to farmers with an aim for zero-wastage with its recently launched ‘Haryana Fresh’ initiative, emphasised Dhankar. He mentioned the importance to balance quality with branding and marketability when it comes to food and dairy industry.
Rajni Sekhhri Sibal, Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Government of India, elaborated on the opportunities that lies in the fisheries sector. “Having exported Rs 47,620 crore worth fish in FY2017-18, India’s fisheries sector has been registering a 7 percent year-on-year growth rate,” said Sibal. In order to increase exports, Sibal invited industry in mariculture and sea-weed production with emphasis on technological integration into the process.
“Food processing plays an integral role in linking farmers to consumers” said Jasmohan Singh, Chairman, CII Northern Region, Agriculture and Food Processing Committee and Managing Director, Frick India. He stressed that food processing industry value adds to the agriculture and allied sector.
“North India is a repository of food supply to the rest of the country” mentioned Gokul Patnaik, Chairman, Global Agri Systems. He emphasised that food processing is the engine that drives agriculture growth and highlighted on the importance of contract farming to solve backward linkage issues and steady investments by private players to resolve logistical issues. He further suggested to decrease GST rate on primary agriculture produce to 0 percent and 5 percent for processed food so as to make healthy food consumption a reality across all sections of the society.
A CII report titled “Food Processing & Dairy Industry: Challenges, Solutions and Sustainability” was also released during the conference. The conference was attended by over 130 delegates from the agriculture, food processing and allied industries.
Haryana has potential to become NCR’s agri & dairy hub: OP Dhankar
Having proximity to Delhi-NCR, Government of Haryana sees great potential to provide direct selling platform to farmers with an aim for zero-wastage with its recently launched ‘Haryana Fresh’ initiative
