Take steps to boost CFC agro-processing in Baddepalli, says Nirmala Sitharaman
Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was speaking after inaugurating a farmer training center and joint agro-processing facility at Baddepalli village in Gurmitkal taluk of Yadgir district on Thursday. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has suggested the district administration and concerned authorities to take initiatives and extend coordination to strengthen activities in joint facility centers to empower women and develop market through district-specific agro-processing units.
She was addressing a gathering on Thursday after inaugurating a Farmers Training Center and Common Facility (FT-CFC) for processing agricultural crops at Baddepalli village in Gurmitkal taluk of Yadgir district.
FT-CFC was established through funds released under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MP-LAD) program as well as financial support from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and implemented by Baddepalli Women’s Farmer Producer Company Limited in Baddepalli village.
“The center is set to produce a range of products, including cleaned groundnuts, roasted and salted groundnuts, peanut butter, groundnut oil and defatted cake, as well as focus on strengthening groundnut value chains by improving processing, branding and market linkages, thereby increasing farmers’ incomes and creating local employment opportunities and improving market access for farmers through agribusiness initiatives,” she explained.
Ms. Sitharaman said Yadgir was selected for the initiative because of its substantial groundnut production of around 22,500 tonnes per annum and its advantageous connectivity with Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and within Karnataka.
The center started functioning six months ago. Despite sufficient human resources, financial assistance and cooperation from the state administration, only 15% of its total capacity is used so far.
She suspected the involvement of middlemen in transporting groundnuts to outside markets instead of the centre. She said that Yadgir region will get a name in groundnut processing like Chittoor region which is famous for mangoes. The district administration should therefore pay attention to initiatives to ensure sufficient production in the center, she added.
Apart from ITC Limited, the products are sold through multiple channels such as kirana stores, supermarkets, Self Help Groups (SHGs), restaurants, malls and digital platforms including Amazon.
Negotiations are underway with organized retail chains to expand the reach of the market, she said.
Before taking a break for her 35-minute speech in multiple languages like Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and English, Ms. Sitharaman said the finance ministry’s aim was to set up a total of seven such units in the Kalyan region of Karnataka and Yadgir was the fourth one.
Sanjay Lohia of the Department of Financial Services Under the Ministry of Finance, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Chairman Shaji Krishnan, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture Capt. A. Rajendra and Chairman and Managing Director of ITC Limited Sanjeev Puri also spoke.
MLA Sharanagouda Kandkur, Deputy Commissioner Rahul Pandve, Zilla Panchayat CEO Lavish Ordia, Superintendent of Police Pruthvik Shankar, NABARD officials, Kalandar Mulla and others were present.
Published – 04 Jun 2026 19:17 IST