National Mission on Food Processing

The National Mission on Food Processing (NMFP) is a centrally sponsored initiative by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Government of India, launched on 1 April 2012. It seeks to boost India’s food processing sector by enhancing value addition, reducing post-harvest losses, increasing farmers’ incomes and promoting infrastructure and technology development in the food-processing value chain.

Background and Rationale

India’s abundant agricultural output and diverse agro-climatic zones provide significant raw-material potential for food processing. However, large-scale wastage, under-utilised processing capacity and weak infrastructure (cold chains, warehousing, processing units) have constrained value addition. The mission was introduced to decentralise implementation of food-processing schemes through States and Union Territories, thereby ensuring closer collaboration with local agriculture plans and enhanced industry-linkage.

Objectives

The principal objectives of the NMFP include:

• Boosting the share of processed food in the total food output.
• Minimising post-harvest losses across perishables by enhancing cold‐chain, preservation, storage and logistics infrastructure.
• Supporting modernisation and technology upgrade of processing units, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
• Promoting entrepreneurship, skill development and human-resource infrastructure in the food-processing sector.
• Increasing farmer income through integration of raw-material producers with processing clusters.
• Strengthening value-chain linkages and improving the competitiveness of Indian processed-food products in domestic and export markets.

Components and Key Schemes

The NMFP consists of multiple component schemes implemented either via States/UTs or directly by MoFPI. Major components include:

• Technology Up-gradation / Establishment / Modernisation of Food-Processing Industries – financial assistance for establishing, expanding or modernising processing units.
• Cold Chain, Value Addition and Preservation Infrastructure (for non-horticultural products) – developing cold-storage, refrigeration, transport, pack-houses and value-addition units.
• Setting up or Modernisation/Expansion of Abattoirs – improving meat processing and hygiene infrastructure.
• Human Resource Development (HRD) Scheme – supporting infrastructure for degree/diploma/certificate courses, training centres, entrepreneurship-development programmes in food processing.
• Promotional Activities – awareness campaigns, capacity-building, quality standards, R&D support.

Implementation Mechanism

The NMFP is implemented through a combination of central and state-funded efforts. State/UT Governments develop annual plans in alignment with the mission, identify projects, facilitate approvals and release of funds. MoFPI provides guidelines, sanctioning norms and central-share funding. The mission emphasises decentralisation, giving States a pivotal role in planning and monitoring.

Significance and Achievements

By providing a dedicated mission framework, the NMFP aligned numerous food-processing initiatives into a coherent national strategy. It helped in:

• Encouraging investment in processing and preservation infrastructure, thereby reducing wastage.
• Facilitating the growth of processing capacities and generating rural and semi-urban employment.
• Fostering linkages between primary producers (farmers) and processing clusters, enhancing value addition and farm-gate returns.
• Promoting skill development and entrepreneurship in food-processing technologies.

Challenges and Limitations

Despite strong rationale, the mission has faced certain challenges:

• Achieving uniform adoption across States, given varying capacities and investment-climates.
• Ensuring timely execution of infrastructure projects, given complex land-and-logistics issues.
• Bridging gaps in technology-absorption, especially among smaller enterprises.
• Aligning infrastructure development with market demand, global quality standards and export potential.