Tomar takes additional charge of Food Processing ministry

New Delhi, Sep 23 (IANS) Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar on Wednesday assumed additional charge as the Minister of Food Processing Industries.

The additional responsibility was assigned to him soon after Harshimrat Kaur Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal resigned from her ministerial post as the Union Minister of Food Processing Industries opposing three farm bills last week.

The Minister was welcomed at Panchsheel Bhawan by Rameswar Teli, MoS, FPI and Pushpa Subrahmanyam, Secretary, FPI. Senior officials of the ministry were also present.

Speaking on the occasion, Tomar said that the Food processing Industry is in the evolutionary stage and MoFPI is making all efforts towards creation of new opportunities for employment for the 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, he added.

The Ministry aims to enhance farmers’ income by better utilisation and value addition of agricultural produce and minimise wastage at all stages in the food processing chain by the development of infrastructure for storage, transportation and processing of agro-food produce.

Apart from this, it also works to encourage R&D in food processing for product and process development and improved packaging, provide policy support, and support for the creation of infrastructure, capacity expansion/upgrade and other supportive measures form the growth of these sectors. The goal of the ministry is to promote export of processed food products.

Tomar also holds the portfolio of Union Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.

–IANS

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