Bihar mulls thrust on food processing units to deal with migrants’ problem

The food processing industries will soon be classified under the priority sector of the state industrial investment promotion policy. This was stated Wednesday by

The food processing industries will soon be classified under the priority sector of the state industrial investment promotion policy. This was stated Wednesday by officials privy to the matter.

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The industries department is currently working on draft amendment to the policy so that the investors in the food processing sector could avail interest subsidy on project cost, electricity duty waiver and the state help in land procurement for the processing units.

Although Bihar is among top producers of vegetables, fruits and crops, it has failed to invite huge investments in food processing industry, as it is currently under non-priority priority sector.

Agriculture minister Prem Kumar said, “The draft amendment to include agro-based food processing industries under priority sector of the policy is being sent for the cabinet approval.”

“This is one among the various schemes being mooted by the department to create job opportunities in the state during the lockdown phase,” said Kumar, after interacting with the top functionaries of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industries (PHDCCI), New Delhi, through video conferencing on Wednesday.

In the meeting, which was attended by secretary of the agriculture department, the minister said that the state government has decided to offer up to 90% subsidy on project cost for setting up fruit and vegetable processing units, costing up to ₹10 lakh. “The department will encourage people or their group to set up smaller units across the state so that migrant labourers, who returned home during the lockdown, could be engaged,” said the minister.

The department has for now allocated ₹12 crore for doling out subsidy to the entrepreneurs. “Fund is no constraint for development of horticulture based processing units. Additional money would be allotted from other heads for development of an integrated network of fruit and vegetable processing units. This will help a large quantity of farm produce which is being destroyed due to lockdown,” said Prem Kumar .

Meanwhile, department officials said that the state government had stepped up efforts to form a state-level federation of farmers’ producer organisation (FPOs) to market the processed products at national and international-level with support from Nabard and other organisations.

ONLINE TRAINING

In another objective to use the lockdown phase for productive use, the department has also formulated a plan to impart on-line training to individuals on farm technology and food processing methodology.

“We have identified 23 types of training, which include mushroom cultivation, processing of vegetable and fruits, etc., for a group of 30 individuals. A sum of ₹12 crore would be spent on imparting training and providing certificates under the skill development mission,” said the minister.

He said that the state would be able to woo investments in the food processing sectors once the industrial promotion policy is amended. “The state government has already proposed offering 50% subsidy on mega projects being executed by the FPOs, while individual investments would get 30% subsidy,” said Kumar.

Senior vice-president of PHDCCI Sanjay Agrawal, agriculture committee chairman NK Agrawal, vice-president Pradeep Multani, general secretary Saurabh Sanya, principal director Yogesh Srivastava, director of Shivshakti Modern Flour Mills, Raxaul, Birendra Kumar and Neeraj Chaube of Ratnagiri Seeds and Farms Pvt Ltd attended the meeting.