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Govt promote millets, millet products for global market
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IANS | 26 May, 2022
Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, Prahlad Singh
Patel on Thursday said that the Centre will encourage and promote not
just the production of millets but also processed millet products for
the global market.
"Next year, i.e. 2023, is the
International Year of Millets. India produces 40 per cent of world's
millets. Our government has made tremendous efforts to promote millets
and not just for production but also for processed millet foods for
supplying to international markets," Patel told mediapersons.
Patel
was speaking on the sidelines of the first Plant-Based Foods Summit
organised by Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Agriculture
& Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), and
Plant Based Foods Industry Association (PBFIA).
In his speech,
he batted for millets and spoke of the parameters and enabling factors
by APEDA for millets and plant-based food and such processed food.
"Our
Ministry has been allotted over Rs 10,000 crore for promotion of this
kind of food. The only condition is that the company should be Indian,"
Patel said, and gave example of several traditional Indian food items
that just "need to be validated by scientific documentation of
traditional practices".
"India has traditionally been a supporter
of plant-based food. It has been our strength," the Minister said and
assured support for the plant-based industry.
Sanjay Sethi,
Exective Director of PBFIA, appealed to the animal-based food industry
"to not look at us as competitors but rather as a younger brother" and
also suggested hand-holding for the nascent industry.
With
sustainability and human health as key driving forces behind the
activities of the Association, the foremost aim of PBFIA is to make
plant-based foods mainstream while providing new avenues for economic
growth.
Inoshi Sharma, Executive Director, FSSAI, pointed to the
increasing disconnect with India's traditional food items, which is
evident much more in urban areas. "If I say, I am eating roti and
baingan bharta, I am looked down upon. But the moment I say, I am having
baba ganoush and pita bread, I am cool. Why are we going away from our
own food?"
Sharma also assured full support from FSSAI.
Rachel Dreskin, CEO, Plant Based Food Association, US, drew attention to
the main reasons for promoting plant-based food: environmental benefit
vis-a-vis reduction of green house gases; human health and social
justice.
The event also saw the launch of a pertinent report,
'The Dawn of a Plant-Based Age: India to Lead the Way to World Food
Security and Nutrition'.
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