Food Processing and Related Industries

What the official syllabus says

Main Examination, Paper IV: General Studies III.

• Food processing and related industries in India- scope and significance, location, upstream and downstream requirements, supply chain management.

Topics in detail

Scope and significance

• Meaning of food processing: primary (cleaning, grading, packing), secondary (milling, oil extraction) and tertiary (ready-to-eat products) processing
• Segments: dairy, fruits and vegetables, grains and milling, meat and poultry, fisheries, edible oils, beverages, confectionery, packaged foods
• Significance: higher farm incomes, reduced wastage, employment in rural areas, exports, link between agriculture and industry
• Low level of processing in India compared with output, and reasons for it
• Role of micro and unorganised food enterprises

Location

• Factors of location: nearness to raw material (perishables), markets, power, water, transport and labour
• Raw-material-oriented and market-oriented units, with examples (sugar mills near cane fields, bakeries near cities)
• Clusters, food parks and agro-processing zones
• One district one product approach and regional specialisation

Upstream and downstream requirements

• Upstream: quality raw material, contract farming, farmer producer organisations, varieties suited to processing, sorting and grading at farm gate
• Downstream: packaging, branding, distribution, retail, exports, consumer demand
• Finance and credit for processing units; priority sector lending
• Food safety and standards: the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India; labelling, testing laboratories
• Skills, research and technology for processing

Supply chain management

• Farm-to-fork supply chain: aggregation, storage, processing, distribution
• Cold chain: pack houses, pre-cooling, reefer transport, ripening chambers
• Logistics costs and losses; role of warehousing and multi-modal transport
• Use of technology: traceability, barcoding, digital platforms
• Organised retail and e-commerce in food

Policy and issues

• The Ministry of Food Processing Industries and its schemes for mega food parks, cold chains and micro enterprises (in general terms)
• Production-linked incentives for food products
• Foreign direct investment in food processing and food retail
• Issues: high cost of compliance, fragmented supply, seasonal raw material, power and infrastructure gaps, competition with imports
• Exports of processed food: standards in importing countries, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority
• Fortification of food and nutrition-focused processing
• Food processing and women's employment; self-help groups in small-scale processing

Related industries

• Packaging industry and packaging materials, including biodegradable packaging
• Food processing machinery and cold chain equipment
• Agro-based industries: sugar, edible oil, cotton ginning, jute, dairy
• Allied sectors: fisheries processing, meat processing and their hygiene requirements

Overlaps

Location of industries is also in General Studies I (factors responsible for the location of primary, secondary and tertiary sector industries).