Exam Topper

Almost more than 60% of India’s population is directly or indirectly dependent upon agriculture and allied activities, but contributes only about 17% to the GDP. For a country like India which has a vast population to feed and maximum workforce is dependent on agriculture, it becomes imperative to increase productivity in this sector. Food processing sector is one of the sectors which can increase the quality of the produce as well as its value. For it, Government of India has launched numerous initiatives.  Initiatives taken by government to develop food processing sector in India  • Mega Food Parks: Under this scheme, government provides capital grants of 50% for all states and 75% to special status states. Since its inception, 42 mega food parks were given in-principle approval. However, only five projects have started operations, including the North East Mega Food Park in Assam. Hence, it can’t be called a proper success. Whereas, its predecess or Food park scheme was qui...

India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) is the largest distribution network of its kind in the world. PDS was introduced around World War II as a war-time rationing measure. The Public Distribution System (PDS), till 1992, was a general entitlement scheme for all consumers without any specific target. The Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS) was launched in June 1992. Subsequently, in 1997, the government launched the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), with a focus on the poor. TPDS aims to provide subsidized food and fuel to the poor through a network of ration shops. Food grains, such as rice and wheat that are provided under TPDS are procured from farmers, allocated to states and delivered to the ration shop, where the beneficiary buys his entitlement.  • In September 2013, Parliament enacted the National Food Security Act, 2013. The Act relies largely on the existing TPDS to deliver food grains as legal entitlements to poor households. This marks a shift by mak...

Food processing is a large sector that covers activities such as agriculture, horticulture, plantation, animal husbandry and fisheries. Agro based food processing is defined as a set of techno-economic activities, applied to all the products, originating from agricultural farm, aqua cultural sources, livestock and forests for their conservation, handling and value-addition to make them usable as food, feed, fiber, fuel or industrial raw materials.  Localisation of Agro-based food processing industries of North-West India  North western states like Punjab , Haryana and North Rajasthan have extensive network of agro based food processing industries. Some of the factors for localization are : • Raw material base: Punjab one of the highest producers of wheat and rice, Rajasthan important area for millet, Haryana for milk and livestock.  • Robust agri marketing infrastructure: Punjab has close to 30 agro processing clusters(one of highest in India).  • Robust infrastruc...