Union Food Processing Industry Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Friday appealed to the farmers of Punjab to make food processing a mass movement by taking advantage of various ministerial schemes to establish own units, form mini clusters or become a part of mega food parks under the SAMPADA as well as other schemes of the Ministry.
“My priority is to help small farmer become an entrepreneur in his own right by adding value to farm produce,” she said while addressing a gathering at CII as part of a road show to promote World Food India fair being held in Delhi from November 3 to 5.
“Keeping this in mind, I have started from the base level by helping farmers or clusters of farmers to make Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO). A company has been specially hired for this purpose. The company will not only help in filling up various applications but also hand-hold the farmer organisations for two years to enable them to produce and market their produce effectively,” she said.
Pointing that there are some success stories already with Dabur tying up with a Punjab FPO producing honey, Harsimrat maintained that more such examples are required to make this a mass movement, “and I will do my bit by travelling across the State to popularise food processing schemes”.
She said that the Ministry is aiming to double the farmers’ income in next three years, and the SAMPADA scheme which will see an investment of Rs 6,000 crore to give impetus to food processing, will play a major role in this.