CII’s Food and Agriculture Centre of Excellence (FACE) is charged with the mission to improve the competitiveness of India’s agriculture and food processing sector, by catalyzing innovation, building capacity, enhancing productivity, and establishing supply chain linkages across the agriculture and food value chain, ensuring food security and inclusive growth.

Over the last 10 years, FACE has worked closely with farmers, the private sector, developmental institutions, and the Government towards building efficiencies across the supply chain, right from the farm gate to the end consumer. With a team of 30 domain experts FACE has established itself as a credible knowledge resource in the agriculture and food domain.

FACE actively contributes to the ongoing policy dialogue related to agriculture and food- security concerns with a robust footprint of evidence-based policy research across Center and state government. The research portfolio is further strengthened by consultancy projects around program evaluation, impact studies as well as commodity-specific value chain assessments for the government as well as the private sector.

Through its integrated approach of action-oriented programs and capacity-building initiatives, while leveraging technology and innovation, the center addresses the issues from the farm gate to the consumer end. FACE has developed a robust portfolio of capacity building, training, and consultancy initiatives that includes training under Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), post-harvest as well as the food safety and quality domain. Given the pool of trained assessors, FACE is impaneled as a training partner under the Food Safety Training and Certification (FOSTAC) program of FSSAI.

FACE is also actively engaged in promoting healthier sustainable diets to ensure food and nutrition security through a multi-sectoral approach and is working towards creating an innovative ecosystem by generating healthier food choices for all segments of the population.

Catalyzing investment across the Agri and food value chain is another focus area under FACE. The segments being prioritized include Agri infrastructure, food processing, dairy, and fisheries where FACE is looking at ‘enhancing the ease of doing business’; convergence with government schemes, PPP to develop agribusiness models that are scalable and replicable across geographies as well as facilitating international funding.

Towards expanding and diversifying its services portfolio as well as disseminating best practices FACE over the past 3 years has launched a host of Resource centers. These cover diverse segments such as Farmer Producer Organizations, Agri Start-ups, Cold chain & logistics, Nutraceuticals and Health Supplements, Food safety, and food security amongst others.

FACE has been working closely with Ministries and Government agencies viz Ministry of Agriculture, NITI Aayog, National Centre for Cold Chain Management (NCCD), Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), GS1 India, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM).

Further FACE has forged several partnerships with International organizations viz GIZ, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), The International Spirits & Wines Association of India (ISWAI) and the international Alliance of Dietary/ Food Supplement Associations (IADSA).

FACE is also working in close cooperation with other Centres of Excellence in CII to establish partnerships with similar organizations/institutions globally for maximum effectiveness.