SHILLONG: The decision of the Centre to “delink” the Centrally-sponsored National Mission on Food Processing (NMFP) from this fiscal has hit hard the food processing sector in the State.
This was observed by Parliamentary Secretary, Department of Horticulture, Robinus Syngkon who was addressing a gathering at the North East Food Processing Conclave here on Tuesday.
“The food processing sector in the State has been hit by the Centre’s decision to stop funding the scheme. The stoppage of Central grant has halted the progress of setting up food processing industries in the state,” Syngkon said adding that the Centre should reconsider its decision as the scheme had proved to be very effective in promoting food processing industries in the State.
Stating that Meghalaya has only two fruit processing units which are in the Public sector under the department and 17 FPO licensees, he said that the annual production of agro based processed products, such as processed fruits, in the state is 600MT, while spices and cashew account for 1000MT and 3000MT respectively.
He further said the total area under production and the total produce of fruit crops during 2014-15 was 36.3 thousand hectares and 37.72 thousand metric tonnes respectively.
Among the fruit crops, the maximum area is under citrus (12.04 thousand ha) followed by pineapple (11.59 thousand ha) and banana (7.09 thousand ha). The total area under vegetable crops was 19.36 thousand hectares excluding tuber crops.
As far as spices are concerned, Meghalaya is one of the leading States in ginger production (area of 9.93 thousand Ha. with production of 66.68 thousand MT) and also a leading producer of quality turmeric (area of 2.72 thousand Ha. and production of 17.70 thousand MT).
