President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday said global food trade has undergone revolutionary changes and we must bring the benefits of these changes and the potential of this trade to every farmer.
Addressing first convocation of the National Institute of Food Technology Entrepr-eneurship and Management (NIFTEM) at Sonepat, he said, “Our determined and committed farmers have produced food for our country and they have it in them to produce for the world. In the services sector, India has taken advantage of its enormous human talent and lower cost structures to build world-class industries. There is no reason why we cannot replicate this in agriculture and in food and agro-based industries.”
Indian farm products - whether rice, milk, fruits and vegetables, or even chillies - can flood supermarkets and feed households across the globe. This can help us create numerous employment opportunities for our young people, in cold storages and in preservation, in food processing and along the food supply chain.
The President said as a society and as a people we are obligated to make life better for our farmers and free them from the fickleness of nature and weather patterns, and, to the degree possible, from the unpredictability of demand and supply.
This is the resolve of the Government, and it has instituted policies and programmes to further this. Use of science and technology along the food chain is vital to these programmes. And this is where institutions such as NIFTEM and those who graduate from will play a vital role, he added.
The President said as social habits changed and as nuclear families emerged in larger numbers, more so in our cities, demand for packaged and ready-to-eat food products would rise in India. The challenge is to maintain quality, safety and labelling standards for food and ingredients that are up to global bench-marks.
Steps should be taken to ensure that packaged foods promote both convenience and health. And that they keep alive the nutritious grains and traditional food items that can be found in every state of India. It is for the food industry to innovate and find easy-to-use solutions to the epidemic of lifestyle diseases in our country.
“And we have to do all this while being conscious of building our own brands, especially for traditional and nutritive food items that have been the pride of India for centuries and can reach far greater consumers at home and abroad,” Kovind added.
The President awarded degrees to gold medalist graduate and postgraduate students in the first convocation ceremony of NIFTEM. Degrees were presented to 540 students who have completed their graduation and post graduation.
Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal said new programmes have been promoted in a sorted and schematic manner to develop the food processing industries and entrepreneurship sector. She said Memoranda of Understanding worth 14 billion dollars have been signed for expansion of food processing industry sector.
Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Women and Child Development Minister Kavita Jain, MP Ramesh Chander Kaushik, Secretary Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries JP Meena, and Chief Secretary DS Dhesi, were also present on this occasion.