Food Processing Industry in India : S&t Capability, Skills and Employment Opportunities

This paper provides a detailed analysis of food processing industry in India, its S&T capability, skills and employment opportunities. Food processing industry is slowly and steadily becoming one of the major industries of our economy. Its share in GDP is on continuous rise, with a CAGR of 8.40 per cent, from 2005-06 to 2009-10. Ther0e has been a continuous increase in the total plan outlay amount from INR 650 crore in 10th Plan; to INR 15077 crore in proposed outlay for 12^th Plan. The sector is growing, but it is yet to compete in the world market. India’s share in world export is meagre with 1.17 per cent. There is a wide gap between productivity and processing of items. The factors which have been used to study food processing industry are S&T capability of sector, its employment generation capacity and skills needed in the sector. The S&T capability segment venture into the changing trend of technology, difference between conventional and modern technology, the areas in which India is lagging behind. The employment generation capacity highlights growth and size of the industry and skills about the kind of human resources involved in the industry, the level of technology used in the sector. The employment generation capacity of the sector is huge, but the industry is not working at its potential. The labour force is highly unskilled, with 80 per cent of them having educational level below 10th standard. The impact of a variety of policies and programmes undertaken by government to develop food processing sector has not been very encouraging. The state needs to strengthen its efforts in S&T capability, infrastructure support and skill set in order to develop food processing industry.