The global food trade has undergone revolutionary changes and its benefits must reach every single farm and farmer in the country, President Ram Nath Kovind said on Saturday.
Addressing the first convocation of National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) in Sonepat, Haryana, Kovind said Indian farm products can potentially flood supermarkets and feed households across the globe.
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“In recent decades, the global food trade has undergone revolutionary changes. We have to bring the benefits of these changes – and the potential of this trade – to every khet (farm) and every kisaan (farmer),” Kovind said.
“In the services sector, India has taken advantage of its enormous human talent and lower cost structures to build world-class industries. There is no reason why we cannot replicate this in agriculture and in food and agro-based industries,” he added.
Noting that there was still a size-able gap between the farm and the fork in the country, Kovind said the gap was not just a matter of prices or of technology but of justice that the society must do to the farmers who toil in far-flung farms.
The president further said that the food industry should innovate and find easy-to-use solutions to the epidemic of lifestyle diseases.
“We have to do this while being conscious of building our own brands, especially for traditional and nutritive food items that have been India’s pride,” he said.
