N0EW DELHI - The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) Friday launched its official magazine ‘Food 360 Degrees’ and a revamped website www.mofpi.nic.in as part of its renewed efforts to reach out to the industry, farmers and the people at large.

“With the launch of the magazine, we have come out literally from a crisis of identity that our ministry had been suffering from,” Minister for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahai said at a function here for the launch of the magazine and website.

“It is our mandate to make people aware of what is happening in the sector and this magazine and the revamped website will help us achieve this,” he added.

The magazine and website launch is part of the 100-day action plan the ministry has chalked out to fast-track the sector’s development after the new United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government assumed charge.

The minister said that since the magazine was being published both in English and Hindi, it would go a long way in helping various stakeholders in the sector get information.

Regarding the revamped website, he said: “I am happy that the NIC (National Informatics Centre) is planning to have 22 language versions of this website.”

He said MoFPI’s media campaign to create awareness of the sector among the people would not be limited to print and internet alone.

“We also plan to go for TV and radio spots in the future. Our challenge is to ensure that farmers get the benefits of industrialisation.”

Sahai said that the food processing industry, a sunshine sector of the Indian economy, was the key to transforming India by making agriculture viable and market-driven, ensuring inclusive growth and reducing mass poverty.

“After the success of India’s information technology (IT) and the biotechnology (BT) sectors which transformed India’s urban economy, it is now the turn of food technology or FT to usher in an economic revolution in India’s vast rural hinterland,” he said.

According to the minister, ‘Food 360 Degrees’ will be the key information provider and disseminator of the ministry’s programmes and activities and will act as a valuable guide to all stakeholders in the sector.

Apart from carrying information about the ministry’s policies and schemes, the publication will also have news relevant to the sector and present case studies of successful ventures in the food processing industry.

The inaugural issue of the publication carries an interview of Sahai where he outlines the emerging partnership between industry and agriculture and how it will impact the food processing industry. It also gives details of the various schemes of MoFPI under the 11th Five-Year Plan.

The new website will act as an authentic information repository for all stakeholders of the sector as well as the general public. The ministry also hopes that it will act as a potential tool to help investors from within the country as well as abroad.

Speaking at the function, MoFPI Secretary Ashok Sinha said that the launch of the magazine marks the ministry’s first attempt at public communication on a regular basis.

“Though the publication is a quarterly now, we hope to make it a monthly in the future,” he said.

MoFPI Joint Secretary Ashok Kumar, who was also present, said: “The website we had was not that interactive. But now it is no longer the case.”

Both the publication and the website are being seen as key information disseminators as MoFPI works towards meeting the targets it has set under the Vision 2015 plan it had chalked out in 2005.

These targets are: trebling the size of the food processing sector in the country from $70 billion in 2005 to around $210 billion in 2015; increasing the level of processing of perishables from 6 percent to 20 percent; increase value addition from 20 percent to 35 percent; and increasing India’s share in the global food trade from 1.5 percent to 3 percent.