Minister calls for export-oriented FPO
Entrepreneurs have been urged to invest in agriculture sector and ago-processing industry in Bihar while a country-wide call was made to all stakeholders including the Government to have an effective R&D in the maize value chain.
Making the call, Bihar Minister of Agriculture Department, Amrendra Pratap Singh, assured, “Investors and entrepreneurs can be rest assured they will get full cooperation from the Bihar government. We want maize to be used enterprisingly in Bihar and industry has a key role to play in it.”
The minister further said that the potential of maize is yet to be explored and it can be achieved by improving productivity with the adoption of new technologies and effective agriculture practices.
Bihar, he said, always had the potential to be an enterprise state and an ethanol promotion policy will permit investors to directly produce ethanol which will make Bihar the ideal state for investment in agriculture.
“We want to be an FPO (Food Processing Organization) exporter. Our production must be appreciated in the country, and we must have customers not only in India but globally,” Singh told the ‘7th India Maize Summit 2021’ organized by FICCI.
The private and government sectors as well as other stakeholders to focus on effective R&D in the maize value chain, said Rajvardhan Singh Dattigaon, Minister for Industry Policy & Investment Promotion, Government of Madhya Pradesh.
He also wants to see the maize value chain strengthened in the country, underlining the need for both government and private sector to work together under the PPP model.
Elaborating on the importance of ethanol, the Minister said that this is one area where the Government is taking a key interest.
“The government has an ambitious target for ethanol and ethanol requires maize among other things. There are huge possibilities, and this is one potential area that needs to be harnessed. I welcome all those interested to come and explore business possibilities,” he said.
The minister further said that FICCI can help in finding new ways and possibilities of helping reach better technology, quality inputs, farm level infrastructure development, and setting up quality processing units.
“We need to create public infrastructure so that we can be competitive exporters and not just internal traders. We must ensure our farmers do not suffer a competitive disadvantage,” added Ravishankar C, Vice President Marketing, Bayer CropScience & Chair of Maize Initiative.
This could only be achieved through collaboration and intervention, according to Gurpreet Bhathal, Director-Seed Sales, Corteva Agriscience, who also stressed that to realize full potential of maize, it is necessary to make maize farming profitable for farmers. Maize Farmers need good germ plasm, agronomic interventions, enabling infrastructure and minimizing of post-harvest waste.
“Private companies, FPOs, Government and Public sectors need to come together to play an enabling role,” underlined Bhathal.
India has major scope in maize exports which needs improvement in the supply chain, added Vijay Kumar Venkatraman, Managing Director, NCDEX. Farmers will wait for the right price and need storage infrastructure for maize, according to Bhathal.
“Looking at the rising demand for maize, there is an imminent need to establish a clear road map for this sector,” said T R Kesavan, Chairman, FICCI National Agriculture Committee & Group President, TAFE Ltd.
Over the last decade, maize consumption in India grew at a CAGR of 5.6% while production grew at just about 2.9%, he pointed out.
A knowledge paper, ‘FICCI-Yes Bank Knowledge Report: Boosting Growth of India’s Maize Ecosystem, Key Imperatives’, was released at the summit on 16 April 2021.
It captures dynamics of the maize sector with a focus on India and identifies the key challenges, according to Sunjay Vuppuluri, Head – Food & Agribusiness Strategic Advisory & Research (FASAR) Segment, YES Bank.
“We need to develop a maize atlas, productivity improvement and agricultural practices,” said Vuppuluri.
Parshottambhai Rupala, Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, also urged FICCI to send recommendations on the sector which will be used for policy framing.
Rupala highlighted the importance of hedging and the need to include it in the agricultural policies. He also gave assurance for minimum support price (MSP) in maize. Maize, he said is a cereal crop of versatile use and must be promoted as intercrop.
Responding to the Minister’s call, FICCI Secretary General Dilip Chenoy, assured that the industry body will work with the government towards strengthening the ongoing changes to help the farmers.
Agriculture has been and remains a key focus area for FICCI, he added.
“During the past few years, we have been constantly striving to propose key reform measures to the government for making Indian agriculture globally competitive,” said Chenoy. #technology #investment #agriculture #manufacturing #exports /fiinews.com
