Approval for Amendment in Agri-Business & Food Processing Policy-2018 | 10 May 2023

Why in News?

In the cabinet meeting chaired by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal on 9 May 2023, approval was granted to the proposal for amendment in the Agri-Business & Food Processing Policy-2018 and incentive schemes under it.

Key Points:

• As per the revised proposal, 25 projects will be set up under the 'Backward and Forward Linkage Scheme' and 15 additional projects under the 'Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Scheme'.
• The policy budget will remain unchanged at Rs 433 crore. A budget of Rs 160 crore will be diverted to the above schemes from the plan for the creation, expansion and diversification of individual agri- and food processing units by 31 March 2024, or till the notification of the new agri-business & food processing policy, whichever is earlier.
• This amendment will be helpful in achieving the desired policy objectives and will be useful in creating a vast food processing ecosystem as well as increasing the income of farmers in the state.
• The Haryana Agri-business & Food Processing Policy was notified with a vision to create a prosperous rural economy by achieving accelerated growth in the agriculture sector, creating strong value chain linkages, laying emphasis on research and establishing state-of-the-art infrastructure.
• The objective of this policy was to make Haryana an obvious destination for investors in the food processing sector, promote value addition in agriculture & allied sectors such as dairy, horticulture, livestock, fisheries, poultry etc. and strengthen infrastructure by investing.
• In food processing clusters, thus developing a strong value chain, promoting farm gate processing of fresh food especially fruits, vegetables, milk and fish, promoting startups in the agri-business space and enabling farmers to enhance their income through new means and to carry out agri-marketing reforms.
• The objective of notifying this policy is to attract an investment of Rs 3,500 crore by the year 2023, create employment for 20,000 people in the entire value chain of the food processing sector and engage in perishables (fruits, vegetables), dairy, fisheries etc. to increase the level of processing by 10 per cent.