Kolkata, Aug 26 - The government Wednesday said it will provide food processing training to 500,000 women in collaboration with industrial training institutes (ITI) as part of its efforts to create 10 million jobs by 2015.

'The training given to the women will strengthen the food processing sector, which has emerged relatively unaffected from the economic slowdown,' Minister for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahai said here.

The government is also facilitating setting up of 350 food processing units, Sahai said at an interactive session with members of the Merchants Chamber of Commerce.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to inaugurate a state food processing ministers' conference Oct 6 in New Delhi to chalk out strategies for further development of the sector in the country.

A vision document for 2015 aims to increase the size of the industry to around $210 billion, besides raising the level of perishable processing from the present 6 percent to 35 percent.