NRIs can play big role in public private partnerhsip in agriculture

New Delhi, Jan 8 (UNI) Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today came out strongly in favour of public private partnerships in various areas of agriculture for achieving four per cent growth in this sector.

Addressing the Overseas Indians at the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas here, Mr Pawar said that such partnerships were being visualised in marketing, food processing, value addition, water conservation, seeds, e-agriculture and extension.

Stating that the states and the NRIs have to be important players in this endeavour, he expressed the confidence that the coming years would witness a major change and a much larger investment would flow to agriculture and allied activities.

The Agriculture Minister informed that encouraging public private partnership was a component of the strategy being adopted by the Government to enhance production and productivity.

In the field of agri-business, especially the creation of agri-marketing infrastructure, there is tremendous opportunity for the private sector. Promotion of direct marketing, contract farming and development of agricultural markets have been identified as key areas of reforms.

A large number of states have amended their Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act for deregulation of agricultural marketing, tbus providing more options for farmers for selling their produce.

The government is supporting ventures for developing infrastructure such as cold storages and terminal markets, by way of equity participation. Private sector, especially NRIs, can play an important role in these ventures, the minister added.

Mr Pawar further said that the private sector and NRIs can contribute immensely in production of quality seeds and promotion of micro-irrigation systems. Contract farming and agriculture online too have immense scope for public private partnership throughout the country.

Organic farming is an area where India has comparative advantage and hilly and rainfed areas with low and no use of agro-chemicals can be instantly converted to organic farming. Similarly, biofuels (fuels derived from plant-based resources) assume important and there is need to develop a roadmap for use in petrol and diesel engines in a time bound manner.

In the area of reserch and extension also, there is need to jointly evolve innovative models for public private partnership with substantial role of NRIs, the minister said.

Mr Pawar emphasised that the professional expertise, business acumen and investment capability of more than 20 million people of Indian origin in different countries need to be utilised in India's growth strategy.

EDS : Pick up suitably from earlier series.

UNI