The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the food regulator of India under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, may soon issue guidelines on ready-to-eat food sold in plastic wrap. These guidelines will aim to ensure the sellers are maintaining the quality of food that is sold without any information on its wrapper.

 

According to the new guidelines, shops will have to provide customers with all information regarding the product, such as its expiration date, from where it has been sourced, and all other details that are mentioned on packaged food.

 

The plastic wrap on the food should be food-grade.

 

According to the Zee Business report, the authorities are looking into creating a process that will help shopkeepers determine the best-before date of the product.

 

Recently, FSSAI had also taken action against Bournvita after concerns about various health claims made by food business operators, a person or company responsible for running a food business, in the country. 

 

In order to regulate the advertisement and claims on food products by food business operators (FBOs), FSSAI has notified a regulation, the Food Safety and Standards (Advertisements and Claims) Regulations, 2018, under which deceptive claims or advertisements are prohibited and are punishable offences under Section 53 of the FSS Act, 2006.

 

In reference to misleading promises made by companies, the FSSAI said any nutrient function claims and other functional claims made on food products should be based on current and relevant scientific evidence.

Record production of the main rabi crops — wheat and mustard — has led to a 12-quarter high growth rate of 5.5 per cent in agriculture and allied activities in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2022–23 (FY23), compared with an upwardly revised 4.7 per cent in the third quarter (Q3).

 

The three-year record gross value added (GVA) growth in agriculture and allied activities came in despite a high base of 4.1 per cent in Q4 of the previous year, 2021–22 (FY22).

 

The growth for the major part of the primary sector was higher than 4.3 per cent for Q4FY23, as projected by the Second Advance Estimates.

 

Part of the reason for higher growth is the Revised Estimates of rabi production in the Third Advance Estimates of agriculture, which belied fears of unseasonal rains having caused damage to crops, particularly wheat.

 

The Third Advance Estimates showed that wheat production in the rabi season was expected to be a record 112.74 million tonnes (mt), which would be 5.5 per cent higher than last year’s production on the back of a sharp rise in acreage and higher yields. February’s Second Advance Estimates pegged it at 112.18 mt.

 

The production of mustard, the main oilseed grown during the rabi season, was projected at a record 12.49 mt, which is 4.43 per cent more than last year’s.

 

However, the Third Advance Estimates showed that the production of chana (gram), which is the biggest among the pulses grown in the country, would be 13.54 mt in FY23, which is the same as last year’s.

 

'The 5.5 per cent Q4 agriculture GVA growth came on a high base effect of 4.1 per cent a year ago. This was unlike Q3. This meant that while heatwaves destroyed wheat crops in Q4FY22, there was no such impact this time around,' said Devendra Pant, chief economist, India Ratings & Research.

 

Before this, agriculture and allied activities growth was higher at 6.8 per cent in Q4 of 2019–20. At that time, it was the major contributor, along with the government-induced public administration, defence, and services, to producing 3.7 per cent GVA growth in a sluggish economy.

 

This time, construction, trade, hospitality, and transport services too played a role in jacking up GVA growth to 6.5 per cent in Q4FY23, notwithstanding slowing down public administration, defence, and services sectors.

 

The Q4 growth in agriculture and allied activities, along with revised Q3 growth, produced a reasonable 4 per cent growth for the sector for FY23, regardless of dismal performance in the first (Q1) and second (Q2) quarters. The growth rate had stood at 3.5 per cent in FY22.

 

The Q3 growth in this sector was revised upwards to 4.7 per cent — a full 1 percentage point up from what was disclosed in February.

 

Meanwhile, the deflators in agriculture and allied activities fell from 5.1 per cent in Q3FY23 to 4.8 per cent in Q4.

Deflators are used to convert current prices into constant prices and represent the rate of inflation. Deflators were as high as 11.1 per cent in Q2 and 11.9 per cent in Q1.

 

While 4.8 per cent is not such a bad number for farmers, it is a reasonable inflation rate for customers too. However, deflators are mostly taken from wholesale prices rather than consumer prices. The effect of wholesale prices on consumer prices came with a lag.

 

The Consumer Price Index-based inflation rate for food items has already started coming down in March and April to 4.79 per cent and 3.84 per cent, respectively.

Global goods trade is expected to witness a turnaround in the second quarter of this year due to a recent pickup in export orders, the WTO said on Wednesday. According to the WTO's Goods Trade Barometer, preliminary data suggest that trade remained depressed in the first quarter of 2023.

 

'But the recent pickup in export orders points to an increase in demand for traded goods in the second quarter,' it added.

 

These results are broadly consistent with the WTO's most recent trade forecast issued on April 5, which projects 1.7 per cent growth in world merchandise trade in 2023.

 

The WTO's (World Trade Organisation) expectation augurs well for India, which is struggling to push its outbound shipments.

 

India's exports contracted by 12.7 per cent, the third month in a row, to USD 34.66 billion in April even as the trade deficit reduced to a 20-month low of USD 15.24 billion, the government data showed.

Agricultural products trade through the electronic-National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) surged 41% to 18.6 million tonnes in 2022-23 from 13.2 million tonnes in the previous financial year.

 

'Several innovative products have started trading through these mandis,' said a senior official, who did not wish to be identified, adding that several products such as silk cocoons, saffron and bamboo are being sold on the platform.

 

In terms of value, agricultural products trade through the e-NAM platform increased 32% to Rs.74,656 crore from Rs.56,497 crore in 2021-22.

 

The trade between interstate mandis increased 36% to 2,36,140 metric tonnes in 2022-23 from 1,74,268 metric tonnes in the previous year. It was worth Rs.2.41 crore, up 117% from last year's Rs.1.11 crore.

 

As on November 30, 2022, 1,260 mandis of 22 states and three Union Territories (UTs) have been integrated with the e-NAM platform. The government has been working on more interstate mandis with the e-NAM to promote trade between mandis located across the country.

 

The states are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal, and the UTs using the facility are Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir and Puducherry.

 

The e-NAM, launched in April 2016, is being implemented by the Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium, a central government agency, with the support of state governments.

ICAR- Indian Institute  of Horticulture Research (IIHR) BESST-HORT (Business Entrepreneurship and Start-up Support through Technology in Horticulture) has spotted promising potential for entrepreneurs interested in starting micro food enterprises, start-ups, self help groups (SHGs), homemakers and students.

 

In order to give them a platform to meet, BESST-HORT is organising a 3-day hands-on training programme on ‘Production of Fruit & Vegetable Powder’  from June 20- 22, 2023 at the ICAR-IIHR, Hesaraghatta Lake, Bengaluru. The training programme will include theory, practicals, demonstration & discussion.

 

The last date to receive applications is June 17. The objective of the training is to provide detailed information about the scope of fruit and vegetable powders, their nutritional quality and packaging. There platform will provide hands-on training on production of moringa, tomato, onion and banana flour and value-add the preparation. This is especially at a time when there is excess production in the market and fall in price of these fruits and vegetables, stated Dr MV Dhananjaya who is the course coordinator along with Dr Venkatt Kumar and others from the BESST-HORT team.

 

Now BESST-HORT is a technology business incubator of ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticulture. The training will also guide on the licensing requirements and detailed project report preparation, besides provide information on various schemes launched by the government.

 

The training according to the organisers will help to improve the working knowledge of fruits and vegetables drying especially moringa, tomato and banana flour. The training will help to network and offer a first-hand information to the participants on the viable marketing avenues.

 

'We will also provide incubation centres for the prospective entrepreneurs and hand-hold them to take off the business.  The charges for this training are Rs 7,500 per participant, registration of the participants is compulsory and including accommodation, food and certifications,' said the organisers.

 

While the course director is Dr Bhuvaneswari S, the course co-directors are Dr CK Narayana, Dr Pushpa Chetan Kumar and Dr Preethi P.

 

According to Dr Dhananjaya, the use of fruit and vegetable powders is key to fortification of ragi, wheat and rice powders used in the preparation of items for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. There is a need for added nutrition to the end product and this is seen to catch up across food business.

 

'In fact such new thinking possibilities allow us at ICAR- IIHR and BESST-HORT to help explore avenues for new business opportunities to be explored by the food entrepreneurs. Such value-addition will strengthen the product development and give entrepreneurs the ability to have an edge in the market with their offerings,' stated Dr Dhananjaya while speaking to FnB News.

The government will introduce the 'world’s largest foodgrain storage scheme' with warehouses in every block in the country under cooperative societies for an allocation of approximately Rs 1 lakh crore, minister Anurag Thakur told reporters after aCabinet briefing on Wednesday.

 

The scheme will utilise funds already allocated for other schemes, Thakur said. Under this scheme, a godown of a capacity of 2000 tonnes will be constructed in every block, or district subdivision. An inter-ministerial committee will be formed for this. The initiative will help reduce damage of foodgrains due to a lack of storage, check distress sales by farmers, reduce import dependence, and create employment opportunities in rural India, the minister said.

 

It will boost food security in the country apart from helping farmers realise better prices for their goods and reducing transportation cost, he said.

 

Besides storing their produce in the facilities, farmers will also be able to get up to 70% loans from these cooperative societies. The programme will be launched as a pilot in 10 districts, and then taken to rest of country. It aims to raise India’s foodgrain storage capacity by 70 million tonnes in the cooperative sector. Currently, grain storage capacity in the country is about 145 million tonnes. In the next five years, this will expand to 215 million tonnes, Thakur said.Creation and operation of infrastructure for storage of grains, such as godowns, will be undertaken by primary agricultural credit societies and block federations.

A National Workshop on 'Per Drop More Crop (PDMC)' was organised by Department of Agriculture& Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India here today to discuss with the stakeholders the various approaches which can be adopted for increasing penetration of micro irrigation in the country. Participants from various Ministries/ Department of Central Government, States and UT’s, Irrigation Industries, Startups working in water management sector and Farmers Producer Organisations were present in the event.

 

Shri Manoj Ahuja, Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) inaugurated the event. He emphasised on adoption of technologies in implementation of the programmes and focused approach for enhancing micro-irrigation coverage and thereby increasing overall efficiency and water productivity of agriculture for ensuring food and nutrition security of the country and incomes of the farmers, particularly in rainfed areas. Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research & Education (DARE) also addressed the inaugural session. He urged all participants to make efforts for adoption of micro-irrigation on large scale for reducing water footprint of agriculture sector.

 

Shri Franklin L Khobung, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare explained in detail the Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) Scheme and the progress made so far. It was informed that Department of Agriculture, Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) is implementing a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) from  2015-16 in all the States of the country which  focuses on enhancing water use efficiency at farm level through Micro Irrigation viz. Drip and Sprinkler irrigation systems. An area of 78 lakh ha has been covered under Micro Irrigation from 2015-16 to till date which is about 81% more than the area covered during pre-PDMC 8 years. The Government has been focusing on increasing water productivity in agriculture and thereby sustainable agriculture and incomes of farmers. A Micro Irrigation Fund (MIF) with a corpus of Rs. 5000 Crore has been created with NABARD during 2018-19 with major objective to facilitate the States in mobilizing the resources to provide top up/additional incentives to farmers for incentivising micro irrigation beyond the provisions available under Per Drop More Crop as well as innovative integrated projects including projects in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) for expanding Micro-irrigation. A Budget announcement has been made to double the initial corpus of Micro Irrigation Fund under NABARD, by augmenting it by another Rs. 5,000 crores.

 

During the programme, five Best Gram Panchayats from States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were recognised for their efforts in high micro-irrigation adoption and best practices in water management sector. Besides, leading States in the micro-irrigation shared the practices and innovative methods being followed in their States for enhancing the micro-irrigation coverage and their popularity among farmers. Leading experts from Ministry of Jal Shakti flagged the need and strategies to cover micro-irrigation in irrigated commands as well as emphasised its effectiveness in Ground Water management and sustenance. The representative from NABARD elaborated on various financing options available for expanding micro-irrigation in the country. Micro Irrigation industry members expressed their active support for the efforts being made by the Government in this national priority programme.

 

Shri Franklin L Khobung, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare also held discussion with stakeholders on the draft revised guidelines for implementation of PDMC Scheme.  During the discussion, he highlighted the role of different stakeholders in the successful implementation of the scheme.  He emphasised the need of taking steps by State/UT Govts. in streamlining the implementation procedure and also on the role of MI industries  in  achieving the objectives of the scheme.

Karnataka Agriculture Minister Chaluvarayaswamy announced on May 30 that similar to Nandini stalls across the state, vegetable stalls will also be introduced. Called Amrutha Malige (Amrita Shops), these will sell the local farmers' produce and will come up next to the Nandini stalls.

 

While Nandini stalls sell dairy products, Amrutha Malige will sell vegetables. He told the media that a pilot project of two stalls had been carried out and following its success, this will now be implemented in all the districts of Karnataka.

 

AGRICULTURE POSTS TO BE FILLED

Chaluvarayaswamy also told the media that there were about 58% of posts in the agriculture department that were lying vacant. The government will now decide whether to hire permanent employees or employees on contract to fill these posts. There were 8,982 posts in the agriculture department and about 5,195 posts are lying vacant.

 

The minister added that there had been a delay in informing farmers about the programmes of the agriculture department as there are more than 3000 posts vacant.

 

MEET FARMERS' NEEDS FOR SOWING SEASON

The agriculture minister has also directed his department to ensure that all the farmers' needs are met before the sowing season. He stated that quality seeds, fertilisers and other items would be made available to farmers before the sowing season.

Indian mills have shipped out the entire 6.1 million tonnes of sugar allowed for exports, industry officials told Reuters, cashing in on multi-year high prices in the world market and robust demand.

 

The world's second-biggest producer of the sweetener is, however, unlikely to allow additional exports in the current marketing year ending on Sept. 30, due to a likely drop in production.

 

This could lift global prices , and allow top producer Brazil to sell more sugar on the world market.

 

'The mills have shipped the entire allocated quantity, and nothing has left since global prices became attractive,' Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd, told Reuters.

 

Mills were getting more than 50,000 rupees ($604.6) per tonne from the overseas sale against the local price of 36,500 rupees, dealers said.

 

A rumour earlier this month that India could ban exports prompted mills to accelerate the remaining shipments, he said.

 

The country exported a record 11 million tonnes of sugar in the previous 2021-2022 season, but New Delhi allowed exports of only 6.1 million tonnes in the current year due to an expected drop in production.

 

Production is likely to fall to 32.8 million tonnes in the current year, from a record 35.8 million tonnes in the previous season.

 

The drop in the production has closed the window of additional exports, which mills were seeking earlier, said a senior industry official, who declined to be named.

 

'We are now not demanding the government to allow more exports in the current season. We know it's not possible,' he said.

 

India mainly exports sugar to Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Sudan, Somalia and the United Arab Emirates.

 

Asian and African buyers have shifted to Brazil from India as the south American country has ample surplus for exports, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the country's apex food regulator, will conduct nation-wide surveillance on milk and milk products (such as milk, khoa, chenna, paneer, ghee, butter, curd, and ice cream), in its ongoing effort to curb adulteration of milk and milk products.

 

This Pan-India surveillance will be done on a large scale by collecting samples from both the organised & unorganised sectors in all the districts of the States/ UTs.

 

The rationale behind choosing milk is due to its indispensable role in our food culture either as a fresh fluid or as processed dairy products. Milk contains vital micronutrients and macronutrients. People of every age group include milk or milk products in their daily diet. Changing lifestyle patterns and increasing health consciousness are the key growth drivers for milk and high value milk products in India.

 

In order to sustain the mandate of providing safe and wholesome food for human consumption, the said survey will be initiated with an objective to assess milk and milk products sold in the country for compliance of the quality and safety parameters as given in FSSR, to identify hotspots for adulteration in milk and milk products & to devise corrective actions/ strategies based on the results of the study and suggest a way forward.

 

It is noteworthy to state that in the past few years, FSSAI has conducted several PAN India Surveys on commodities, which includes the Survey on Milk in 2011, and 2016, with sample size of 1,791 and 1,663, respectively. The National Milk Safety and Quality Survey 2018 was conducted in all States and UTs. A total of 6,432 samples of milk from organised and unorganised sectors were collected from 1,103 towns/cities with population above 50,000.  All samples collected were tested for critical parameters of quality and safety.  

 

Further FSSAI conducted the PAN India Milk Products Survey 2020, to understand the true picture of safety and quality of milk products and desserts being sold in the market during festivals. In all 2,801 milk product samples from organised and unorganised sector (Paneer, Khoa, Chhena, Khoa based desserts and Chhena based desserts), were collected from 542 districts across the country. The milk products were tested for all the quality and safety parameters including pesticide residues, heavy metals, crop contaminants, melamine and microbiological parameters.  

 

Similarly, in 2022, FSSAI conducted Milk Survey in selected 12 States (which includes 10 States where the Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) was prevalent & 2 States as control with no reported outbreak of LSD) due to the outbreak of LSD in cattle in India. The administration of antibiotics/veterinary drugs in

 

affected animals and spraying insecticides in the sheds may result in residual contamination in milk. In order to ascertain the safety of milk, the presence of antibiotics, pesticide residues & heavy metals were assessed in the samples collected. The outcome of the survey revealed that the milk sold in the selected 12 States is largely safe for consumption.  

 

FSSAI has conducted five surveillances on milk and milk products since 2011 and continue to monitor the safety and quality of the food products and always plan to conduct surveillance based on the outbreak of any food related issues and emerging risks.