Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti announced on Tuesday that the government will focus on setting up of mini food parks to raise the processing level and will urge industries to buy agricultural produce directly from farmers to boost their income. 42 mega parks have been sanctioned and they will be operational by 2019.

Jyoti, who is Minister of State for Food Processing assured the industry that any issue related to GST will be taken up by the ministry.  She was addressing an Assocham conference on FMCG.

The government will facilitate setting up of ‘mini food parks’ across the country on a smaller land parcel to boost food processing level. She said that this will be done under the new ₹6,000 crore SAMPADA scheme approved by the government.

The minister said that there is a need to increase the food processing level to reduce wastage of farm produce and the ministry provides a subsidy of up to Rs 50 crore to set up a mega food park.

Hoping to boost farmer’s income by direct procurement, she suggested the processing sector will get their raw material at cheaper rates and better quality if they buy agricultural produce directly from farmers.

Aart from food security, the minister also stressed the need for food safety. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal said the regulator came out with standards of various products in the last few years which are globally benchmarked. He added that it is open to making changes in standards based on the feedback of stakeholders.