The minister hailed this as one of the major achievements of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) which looks after one of the major areas of food storage and is one of the largest storing agency in the country.

While advocating the grave need for minimising the wastage at all stages of food processing chain KV Thomas said that development of a strong and vibrant food processing industry together with infrastructure for storage, transportation and processing of agro-produce is essential to minimise the wastages.

Talking about the initiatives taken by the Ministry of Food Processing to promote the industry through developmental and policy measures the minister said that the government is providing assistance to food processing industries under its various schemes, supporting various R&D activities and working towards human resource development to meet the growing demand for skilled manpower and promoting entrepreneurship.

The minister also said that the government is looking towards other areas for addressing the issues pertaining to achieving the food security. “After attaining the self-sufficiency in the food grains production we have now shifted our focus on eastern region of the country which has huge potential to harness ample of natural resources to achieve food security and agricultural sustainability,” said KV Thomas.

Talking about the price support operation of the government and its importance which is aimed at ensuring remunerative prices to the farmers for their produce and incentivising them to produce more, the minister said that MSPs (Minimum support prices) are fixed in a manner which covers the costs of production and ensures a reasonable return to the farmers, besides the MSP operation also acts a cushion to farmers against any sudden drop in market prices in a situation of excess supply.