New Delhi: The Central government is working on ‘Good Agriculture Practice’ to benefit the Indian agriculture sector. “There is a concern at the international level on having a sustainable agriculture, good agriculture practices along with environmental concern. This is an area where the government has not yet come out with a policy, but we want to come up with a policy on ‘Good Agriculture Practice. We would have a policy on this, and we would work together with the industry on this," said Manoj Ahuja, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.
Addressing the conference on ‘Scope of Public-Private Partnerships in Agriculture’ organized by FICCI on Tuesday, Ahuja added that micro irrigation is a priority area for the government. “We will work out a model to provide easy financing along with providing subsidies so as to create a simple system for the farmers. We need to address these concerns,” he highlighted.
The Secretary further stated that it is imperative for the farmers to get easy and simple solutions to their problems through digital platforms. We believe in the ability of the farmer and if we give them support via non-financial intervention by providing IT solutions, he added. “It would be beneficial for the farmers if we can provide these technology interventions through a common open source,” said Ahuja.
While addressing the concerns raised by the industry, Ahuja added that quality agri-inputs is also an area of concern for the government and steps are needed to further improve it. We can create NABL accredited labs under PPP or under viable gap funding along with robust IT systems for sampling and testing of various seeds, fertilizers and pesticides for supporting the farmers.
Dr Vijaya Lakshmi Nadendla, Joint Secretary Marketing, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, GoI and MD, SFAC, said that inputs, infrastructure, investment and institutions are the 4 important I’s for policy framework for the agri sector. “The corporate sector can pitch and provide necessary investment for agriculture,” she added.
Samuel Praveen Kumar, Joint Secretary, Extension, AIF and I&PS, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, while highlighting the benefits of PPP said that there are emerging technologies like ICT, AI, IoT etc, which are very disruptive technologies and can make farming more predictive. “We need to de-risk the agriculture sector,” he added.
Kumar further stated that investments will not only help in the agriculture sector to propel the entire growth cycle of our economy but also help in value realization for the farmers. “The merits of the PPP model include the managerial and financial expertise of the private sector combined with the administrative expertise of the government which is unmatched. The investors will be more confident to come forward to invest in agri projects.”
Pravesh Sharma, Chairman, FICCI Task Force on FPOs, said that we have to recognize that especially in India if there is one sector which is almost 100 per cent privately owned is agriculture. The policy framework that the govt designs, it has a great impact on how investments flow into agriculture, how markets deliver, how technology routes, he added. /BI/
