Kerala should enjoy benefit of the possibilities of food customization and advancement of convenient and ethnic food chains under the One District One Product (ODOP) scheme that gave push to the motto of Vocal for C Anandharamakrishnan, Director, Indian Institute of Food Processing, Tanjore, stated India holds enormous capability in growing into the world food factory with its grand food and grocery market share that has been rated sixth largest in the world.
He was talking at a webinar organized by Kerala Agricultural University on the coming chances in the food processing sector under the Prime Minister Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PM FME) scheme managed by Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
The webinar was organized to discuss about the growth of micro food industries under self-help groups and farmer producer organizations via technological assistance and to guide for entrepreneurship growth.
He emphasized the significance of the food sector in sustaining the Indian economy that supports 19% of the total workforce which can be maximized further via technology integration to grab the chances offered by the production benefits in fruits, vegetables, spices, milk products, etc.
The ODOP concept was targeted at the modulation of micro enterprises on select products within the district via credit linked subsidy of 35% of eligible project cost limited to a maximum of ₹10 lakh. New units will be allowed only on ODOP to produce scale and non-ODOP units only allowed for expansion. It is also aimed to enhance the common service facilities in product clusters for packaging, quality testing, branding and marketing.
KAU officials later informed the University and the State Industries Department has collaborated to adopt and implement the ODOP scheme to generate micro enterprises aimed on local strengths and brand creation. A baseline study done for the programme has recognized products ranging from mussels to tapioca, coconut oil, and spices for different districts.