Government to focus on setting up mini food processing units

New Delhi, Oct 10 : The government is focussing on creating mini food processing units across the country to encourage farmers to produce high-quality farm output, Food Processing Industries Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti said here on Tuesday.

"There is a need to set up mini food processing units in large numbers as that would encourage farmers to produce high-quality farm output," she said while inaugurating an Assocham FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) Summit 2017.

The minister urged the food processing industry to buy raw material directly from farmers, adding that it is the only means to double their incomes, and would also encourage them to come up with quality produce.

"If industry directly buys the farmers' produce from them, it will get top-quality raw material for processing purposes at a cheaper rate which will also help the farmers in realising their actual cost.

"When the farmers will get to know that their produce is going to be sold in such (food processing sector) markets, they will automatically work upon producing high quality farm output," said Jyoti.

However, the minister lamented that post-independence, while the private food processing industry worked extremely well on its own, there was little support extended by the government until 2014.

"It is the responsibility of the governments to encourage the industries," she added.