Honey testing laboratory in Bihar soon: Jai Kumar Singh

PATNA: State industries minister Jai Kumar Singh on Thursday said the government has sanctioned Rs 2 crore for setting up a honey testing laboratory at Udyog Bhavan here to ensure sell of pure honey in the market.

The minister announced this at a workshop on ‘Development of food processing industries – Government policies and opportunities’, organised by the Bihar Industries Association, here on Thursday. Addressing the gathering, Singh said a state-of-the-art facility would come up at Fatuha to store vegetables produced by farmers of Bihar. “The land for this purpose will be allocated by the Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA),” he added.

The minister said the government is in talks with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre for adopting the new radiation technology for storage of vegetables. “About 80% vegetables turn waste due to lack of storage facility in the state. Radiation processing will extend shelf life of food products. It is very effective in treating agricultural produces,” Singh added.

The key speaker of the workshop was Minhaj Alam, joint secretary of ministry of food processing industries. He talked about ‘operation green’ scheme and opportunities in food processing sector.

Alam said, “A special fund in National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) worth Rs 2,000 crore, designated as food processing fund, was created to provide affordable credit to food processing units in mega and designated food parks. The loan is provided for a period of 7 years at concessional interest rate of 8-9%.”

He said food and agro-based processing units and cold chain projects have been classified under agriculture activities as priority sector.

Pankaj Kumar Singh, director of food processing, department of industries, made a presentation on policy and programme of the state government for food processing. Two technical sessions were held during the daylong workshop, which was presided by BIA president K P S Keshri.