Govt makes 'paradigm shift' in food & agriculture sector

Kolkata: The state government has made a decisive "paradigm shift" in the food and agriculture sector, by focusing on maximising capacity building of small and marginal farmers by risk mitigation strategies and ensuring minimum support prices for essential crops, said Pradip Kumar Mazumdar, Advisor to the Chief Minister for Agriculture & Allied Sectors.

While addressing the Food Processing Conclave organised by CII at a city hotel on Friday, Mazumdar pointed out that the state government has carried out various schemes including setting up 186 krishak bazars, warehouses, cold storages, water storage schemes, river lift irrigation, check dams and distribution of solar irrigation pumps to marginal farmers at nominal or no prices.

Mazumdar said that the state government has also been actively encouraging Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and its focus is on improving productivity and production of crops on demand of the industry, which would make the farming vocation "productive and economically viable."

He further added that there are opportunities of investors in the horticulture, dairy, fisheries and animal husbandry spaces in the state. He also requested industries to come forward with their views on the incentive policies of the government.

Speaking at length about how the industry can leverage opportunities with the FPOs, Awadhesh Kumar, General Manager, NABARD, said that the FPOs need support of the stakeholders in terms of training and capacity building as they are not "traditionally business people" and "need to understand the demands of the market."

Kumar also called for the support of financial institutions for capital disbursement to the FPOs which usually have difficulty in getting capital due to poor track record. He urged CII to create linkages between FPOs and the industry, to take forward the Centre's s target of promoting 10,000 FPOs.

Sweeta Santipitaks, Consul General, Royal Thai Consulate General in Kolkata, said: "One of the leading agri suppliers in the world, Thailand has taken affirmative steps in increasing productivity in this space through the Thailand 4.0 model and the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC)."