Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar assumed charge as the Minister of Food Processing Industries in Panchsheel Bhawan today afternoon. The Minister was welcomed by Shri Rameswar Teli, MoS, FPI and  Smt. Pushpa Subrahmanyam, Secretary, FPI. Senior officials of the ministry were also present. The Minister met all the senior officials and reviewed the schemes of the ministry. Shri Tomar is currently holding the charge of the Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Minister of Rural Development, and Minister of Panchayati Raj.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Tomar said that Food processing Industry is in the growing stages and MoFPI is making all efforts and contributing towards creation of new opportunities of employment for youth, bringing profits to our farmers by offering remunerative prices to them, making the goods available for its consumers etc.

    The Ministry of Food Processing Industries has a clear goal of attaining these objectives by facilitating and acting as a catalyst to attract quality investments from within India and abroad into this sector with the aim of making food processing a national initiative.With this overall objective, the Ministry aims to:

• Enhance farmer's income by better utilization and value addition of agricultural produce
• Minimize wastage at all stages in the food processing chain by the development of infrastructure for storage, transportation and processing of agro-food produce;
• Introduce of modern technology into the food processing industries from both domestic and external sources;
• Encourage R&D in food processing for product and process development and improved packaging;
• Provide policy support, and support for creation of Infrastructure, capacity expansion/ Upgradation and other supportive measures form the growth of this sectors;
• Promote export of processed food products.

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RJ/NG