October 2020, South Asia 
Re-imaging agriculture through the lens of food processing industry
Sanjana Kadyan and Tulsipriya Rajkumari

The Covid-19 pandemic has accentuated the criticality of food security and food surplus management in the current policy space. To this end, policy steps in the agriculture sector in recent years have shifted focus from sustenance to marketing.

However, the sector is still exposed to challenges of post-harvest management (PHM), poor price discovery and inadequate market access for farmers. Lack of PHM has led to significant post-harvest losses of 4-6 per cent in fruits and 15.8 per cent in vegetables, 10.5 per cent in marine fisheries and 6.7 per cent in poultry (ICAR-CIPHET, 2015). While there has been significant progress in building individual cold storage facilities, their lack of geographical spread and tardy upgradation into integrated multi-commodity hubs are problems that persist.

The food processing industry (FPI) is poised to address these supply chain gaps bolstered by an ecosystem recently set up by the government’s three Farm Acts under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package, Agri Infrastructure Fund and formalisation of Micro Food enterprises. A growing FPI sector will also help create a fair and equitable agricultural market while ensuring good remuneration for farmers.