Uttarakhand : Chief Secretary said in the meeting of Horticulture and Food Department, “Food processing is our strength”, these instructions were given to the officers
Chief Secretary Dr. SS Sandhu organized a meeting with the Department of Horticulture and Food Processing at the Secretariat on Monday. During the meeting, the Chief Secretary said that food processing is our strength. The produce in the hilly regions gets spoiled due to lack of market, weather and traffic jams. Food processing units should be promoted in hilly areas only so that this product does not get wasted. The Chief Secretary said that for this, food processing units should be developed on a large scale in the hilly areas. He said that after increasing the production, the farmers should not worry about the market. The private sector should be encouraged in this. Work should be done to strengthen the food processing units which are already running. He said that this will increase economic activities in the hilly areas and employment will also be generated. He also directed Secretary Udyan to focus on cluster based polyhouses. He said that to start the polyhouse scheme on a large scale, arrangements for seeds, saplings and raw materials etc. should be made in advance.
The Chief Secretary said that it is impossible for any scheme to be successful without knowing and resolving the problems coming from practical point of view. He said that before promoting the product, it is necessary to arrange its market and take the farmers and other stakeholders into confidence. By establishing constant communication with farmers and other stakeholders, instructions were given to solve their problems after understanding them. The Chief Secretary said that the action plan and its timeline should be fixed in advance.
On this occasion Additional Chief Secretary Anand Bardhan, Secretary Dilip Jawalkar, B.V.R.C. Purushottam, Dr. Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Additional Secretary Planning Rohit Meena and Director Horticulture H.S. Baweja and other officers were present.
