‘Haryana Has the Potential to Become NCR’s Peri-Urban Agri & Dairy Hub: O P Dhankar

By 121 News

Chandigarh 08^th Aug:- O P Dhankar, Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Dairying and Animal Husbandry, Government of Haryana, emphasized on the potential of Haryana to become a peri-urban agri and dairy hub in the region. Shri Dhankar was speaking at the CII Northern Region Conference on Food Processing and Dairy at New Delhi today.

Having proximity to Delhi-NCR, Government of Haryana sees great potential to provide direct selling platform to farmers with an aim for zero-wastage with its recently launched 'Haryana Fresh' initiative, emphasized Shri Dhankar. He mentioned the importance to balance quality with branding and marketability when it comes to food and dairy industry.

Rajni Sekhhri Sibal, Secretary, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Government of India, elaborated on the opportunities that lies in the fisheries sector. She asaid that having exported 47,620 crores worth fish in FY2017-18, India's fisheries sector has been accounting for a 7 per cent year-on-year growth rate. In order to increase our exports, Ms Sibal invited industry in mariculture and sea-weed production with emphasis on technological integration into the process.

Jasmohan Singh, Chairman, CII Northern Region, Agriculture and Food Processing Committee and Managing Director, Frick India Ltd.said that food Processing plays an integral role in linking farmers to consumers. He stressed that food processing industry value adds to the agri and allied sector.

Gokul Patnaik, Chairman, Global AgriSystems Pvt. Ltd. mentioned that North India is a repository of food supply to the rest of the country. He emphasized that Food Processing is the engine that drives agriculture growth and highlighted on the importance of contract farming to solve backward linkage issues and steady investments by private players to resolve logistical issues. He further suggested to decrease GST rate on primary agriculture produce to 0 per cent and 5 per cent for processed food so as to make healthy food consumption a reality across all sections of the society.

A CII report titled "Food Processing & Dairy Industry: Challenges, Solutions and Sustainability" was also released during the conference. The conference was attended by over 130 delegates from the agri and allied industry.