Food Processing Summit held in Ladakh

On January 16, 2020, the Department of Industries and Commerce, functioning under Ministry of Food Processing Industries organized food processing summit in Ladakh. The other stakeholders of the summit include Invest India and National Investment Promotion and Facilitation agency.

Highlights

The Summit was attended by food producers of Ladakh. It included producers of milk, barley, meat, organic vegetables, apples and apricots. The Ladakh Action Plan for Food Processing to promote food processing was presented at the summit.

The summit focused on chain mapping of food processing and recommended strategies to integrate local population towards agriculture and food processing. It also focused primarily on Leh and Kargil regions.

Current Scenario

Though Ladakh has the potential for growing cereals, vegetables and food grains, agriculture has now taken back seat in the rapid growth of the region. Agriculture has lost its place to the growing tourism in the region. Also, the other reasons for decreased participation of agricultural activities include low cropping intensity, short agriculture season and less productivity.

Government measures

The Government of India has been focusing on the following to develop agriculture in the region

• GoI adopts improved green houses, poultry farming, lambing shed, value addition and marketing of horticultural products and compost pits.
• It introduces high yielding crop varieties, seed production techniques, organic farming
• The Union Government is also motivating farmers to adopt cold weather technologies to increase production.

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2020