Stress on food funds for Northeast - Union minister upbeat

The Centre today said it would push for better utilisation of schemes for food processing industries in the Northeast but hinted that the onus of implementing the centrally sponsored schemes lay on the states.

“The utilisation of the central schemes for food processing industries in the Northeast has been less than 50 per cent. However, our ministry has in the past five months ensured as much as 50 per cent utilisation,” Union minister for food processing industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal said during an interactive session organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce here today.

Under the National Mission on Food Processing, the states have the liberty to use their share of funds, be it on food processing, skill development or setting up cold storage, the minister said.

“They can also requisition additional funds once the allocated funds under a scheme are utilised. So the more they use, the more they get,” she said.

The minister said she had asked the state national mission directors of the region to ensure that the funds under the central schemes are properly utilised.

She called upon investors and entrepreneurs in the Northeast to avail of the facilities in the mega food park coming up in Nalbari district.

“Our government plans to set up food parks in all the districts in the next five years to reach out to the farmers. In fact, we have taken up the mega food park scheme in a big way to ensure zero or minimum wastage of what is produced and that the farmers get their due. This will ensure that there is availability and the prices remain under control,” she said.

The Northeast, the minister said, is the future of India as far as organic food is concerned. “Organic production has a huge national and global market and only the Northeast has the potential to meet this demand,” she said.

“At the same time, the states must ensure that every farmer household is like a self-help group, where the father produces, mother processes and children market the items,”

Badal said.

Industry body Finer, during the course of another interactive session here, submitted a memorandum to the minister requesting the Centre to address issues regarding uplift of the food processing sector in the Northeast.