SHILLONG, OCT 4: Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti on Tuesday emphasized the need for introduction of Foreign Direct investment (FDI) in the agriculture sector for the interest of farmers in the North East region. She said this during her address at the National Cold Chain Summit – North Eastern Region, 2016 on “Creating efficient cold chains for boosting perishable food industry in North East” held in the city. According to her, FDI would benefits the farmers as well as the consumers in the region.
Niranjan further informed that the NDA led centre government has also initiated several projects in the agricultural sector.
“Therefore the need is to setup more processing units to address the problems faced by farmers,” she said while adding that the centre wants to create a situation where the produce of the farmers are processed and later exported to other parts of the world.
Earlier in her speech, Rajya Sabha MP from Shillong, Wansuk Syiem said with the incentives offered by the centre, the fruits and vegetables growers in Meghalaya can benefit through the setting up of cold chains.
They can look forward to adopting new technologies in pre-conditioning, pre-cooling, ripening, waxing, retail packing and labeling of fruits and vegetables which do not alter the essential characteristics of fruits and vegetables even after long transportation delays, she added.
She also said that it is heartening to note that premier industry bodies have been organizing events regularly in the region including Shillong to create awareness among the farming community of the abundant scope offered by the food processing sector and also to attract investments in this emerging sector.
The Rajya Sabha MP also urge the officials in the ministry to make full use of the feedback generated during such events and follow these up firm offers of fiscal incentives to prospective investors.-By Our Reporter
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