Need to focus on value addition in food processing: Chirag Paswan | India News

New Delhi: India has the capacity to support food security in many other countries, but the full potential of the food processing sector is yet to be tapped, Food Processing Minister Chirag Paswan said on Friday, stressing the need to take the sector deeper into rural India.Paswan said India has scope in the food processing industry, but now there is a need to focus on value addition. He said key challenges include strengthening farmers financially, which can happen only when they have the ability to sell their produce when they get good prices. This can happen when the shelf life of farm produce is extended through value addition, the minister said. He further said that there is a need to set up more food processing units near agricultural production centers. He also highlighted the need to address waste, particularly perishable goods.He said several interventions, which the government has taken in the last decade, will help position India as a global food basket. On India’s growth story, Paswan said a decade of structural reforms under Prime Minister Modi has strengthened the country’s economic resilience. Paswan said that even amid global uncertainty, India remains the fastest growing major economy. He added that the country’s next leap will be driven not only by scale, but also by value creation, especially in agriculture and allied sectors. “Our agriculture sector is shifting from subsistence to value creation,” he said, stressing a renewed focus on animal husbandry, fisheries and food processing.On the India-US agreement, Paswan said farmers’ interests will never be compromised. The assurance comes as the opposition questioned the deal as ‘anti-farmer’. “India is one of the fastest growing economies. That means we are doing something right. Our policies are often challenged, but we are dispelling all fears.”