Agriculture Minister B.C. Patil on Wednesday said the State government had set a target of increasing the processing of produce from agriculture and allied sectors to 25% in the next five years from the present level of 3 to 5%.
Participating in a webinar on ‘Impact of Agro and Food Processing Industries in Karnataka: Gaps, Challenges, Opportunities and Way Forward for Better Future’, organised by ASSOCHAM here, he said the target was in line with that of the Centre.
Marketability
“Our State is planning to improve the marketability of farm produce and provide value-added services like assaying, grading, cleaning, labelling, and packing at warehouses and cold storages through Karnataka State Agricultural Produce Processing and Export Corporation (KAPPEC) and Department of Industries and Commerce, besides trading platforms,” he said.
Mr. Patil said Karnataka was planning to establish warehousing and logistic hubs in food and agri parks. It was also preparing to operate warehousing and cold storages as sub-markets with online trading platforms; warehouse-based sales facilities for agriculture and horticulture produce. He said the government was in discussions with experts on how best it could make use of funds available under Atma Nirbhar Abhiyan.
100 more FPOs
The Minister also stated that the Karnataka government was planning to establish another 100 FPOs in the current financial year. The recently released guidelines of the Centre on FPOs will further strengthen the FPOs in Karnataka, he said.
