India’s food processing industry is essential to the country’s economy and job market : Parameswaran Iyer, CEO of Niti Aayog

On Friday, Niti Aayog CEO Parameswaran Iyer said that increasing production and exports of processed commodities is crucial for the Indian economy and creating jobs. Speaking at a CII seminar, Iyer said that the food processing industry is critical to the well-being of the economy and the people and that the MSME sector should be encouraged to enter this field.
He emphasized that food processing can increase farmers’ revenue and contribute to meeting dietary requirements.
Iyer argued that increasing production at the agricultural level, or basic processing, is essential.
He said the government had taken several measures to ensure food security because of the increased importance of this issue in the current international setting.
The CEO of Niti Aayog noted that agricultural production has increased over the past few years.
Iyer said that the government had taken several actions related to food processing, such as the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) program.
He said, “This is a very, very important government program that is actually aiming to incentivize investment, but production is vital to strategic industries like food processing.”
The CEO of Niti Aayog announced that the millennium year would begin in less than a month.
To that end, he advocated for a greater emphasis on millet, a food that is both healthy and provides several additional benefits.
It has been pointed out by Iyer that agricultural planting patterns and the methods used to produce food have undergone significant shifts.
When asked about the economy and employment, he said, “But food processing is an important area.”
Iyer argued that the food processing industry should include the MSME sector because it creates the most jobs.
He argued that India should increase its “already-occurring” export of food processing goods.
As Iyer pointed out, food arrives from all over the world via extensive and convoluted supply networks.
It’s a whole, intricate ecosystem all on its own, he said, mentioning everything from animal husbandry to agriculture to fisheries to storage to transportation to distribution to retail.
Thus, Iyer claimed, it requires concrete and targeted actions to flourish.
Iyer said that he thinks there should be an effort to decrease food waste through industrial processing, which he found to be a concern.
“On the one hand, we produce food, and on the other side, there is a lot of wastage, and there are millions of people internationally, who are chronically undernourished,” he said.
Iyer noted that food systems exacerbate the destruction of natural environments.
“So, there are some major difficulties, which, of course, you will be addressing,” he said to the food manufacturing firms.
The CEO of NITI Aayog asked for industry input to eliminate roadblocks and release the sector’s full potential.
In his speech, Iyer emphasized the importance of bolstering primary processing at the farm level and discussed the importance of backward linkage from the food processing industry.
“Again, that’s a significant obstacle because it affects many industries, government agencies, and biomes. How can process steps like sorting, grading, packaging, and drying be more efficient? “Inquired him.
He also noted the importance of this in ascending the value chain.
Iyer argued that enabling distributed primary processing was critical to creating the infrastructure to process large-scale high-value data.
Increases in farmer income are a top government priority, and he pointed out that expanding the food processing ecosystem will help with that goal.
“As a result, on the one hand, it will facilitate increased revenue maximization.” However, it will undoubtedly aid in our efforts to improve our diets.
Iyer remarked, “Nutrition is critical from a health point of view, particularly for children below five, and we have a long way to go.”
There has been a lot of progress, but he stressed the importance of ensuring people access healthy food.
Iyer emphasized the importance of providing farmers with financial incentives to adopt more sustainable agricultural practices.
Food safety was mentioned, and he suggested that India is lagging behind other countries in this regard.
He said that scaling up sustainable food processing systems can benefit significantly from the use of technology, especially digital technology.
In addition, Iyer detailed the various plans for boosting millet’s profile over the coming 12 months.