Indore Mayor Malini Gaud, NABARD CGM S K Bansal, Suhas Joshi (Head-Sustainability, Bayer group), Amit Vatsyayan, Partner at E&Y, Bharat Char (Head R&D at Mahyco), Amitabh Mohan (DGM, NABARD), Rajnikant Rai (CEO, ITC-Agri Business), Narendra Dhandre (DGM, Netafim), DN Pathak (executive director, SOPA) and Dr. Rama Chari (Associate Director, Material Science group, RRCAT) were among the prominent panelists who discussed ways and means to further boost MP’s glorious agri-revolution. The conference was moderated by RN Bhaskar, Consulting Editor of Free Press Journal. Take a look below at some key points discussed and announcements made below.
CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan: Rates of farm produce to be fixed per acre in Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan elicited a thunderous applause from farmers when he announced on Sunday that rates of farm produce would be fixed per acre during his next term in MP, post assembly elections.
Chouhan was addressing farmers and other guests at the conference. The Chief Minister made a host of announcements to address problems of farmers. He said that a mechanism would be developed to fix crop rate per acre which would be over and above the existing minimum support price and the Bhavantar crop payment scheme. He also said that in order to ensure better farm prices for farmers an Agriculture Produce Export Board would be set up in Madhya Pradesh. Again, to stop excessive production of a single crop, a system would be developed to guide farmers into apportion areas of their farm for different crops. (Read Full Story)
Panelists engage in healthy discussion at MP’s Agri-Revolution at conference organised by Free Press Journal and Moneycontrol.com
‘Every consumer can be a buyer & every house can be a marketplace’
Like most sectors, the agriculture sector has been increasingly embracing technology. But in case of agriculture, technology is utilised largely in stages relating to pre-production and production. But when it comes to post production, there is not much awareness among farmers.
“Every consumer is a buyer and every house can be a marketplace,” said Rajnikant Rai, CEO, ITC-Agri Business. This can only possible if farmers embrace technology to reach the consumer or buyer. This means the farmers will have to become responsible marketers too. “The government should be an enabler and help buyers reach farmers.” The ENAM (electronic national agriculture market) concept that the government introduced recently is meant to connect farmers with their future buyers. That can be a game-changer. (Read Full Story)
More value must flow to the primary producer, say experts
Experts agreed that the state would need to create opportunities that allowed the flow of value to primary producers. Suhas Joshi, Head-Sustainability, Bayer group, South Asia, was clear that this was the only sustainable solution. According to him, “Contract farming system was a good solution, because the basic logic – sustainable income for cultivators and supply visibility for processors – could not be doubted. However it is necessary to tweak the concept with the clear objective that farmers get money rather than middlemen.”
Amit Vatsyayan, Partner at E&Y laid out four core areas of attention. First was to stop value loss of 20-30 per cent which goes away from the farmer’s income and does not do anything for the buyer. Next was to create more value, mainly through warehousing and processing. Then was the need to encourage farmers to switch from just selling their output en masse, to participating in sorting, grading and use of infrastructure like pack- houses. (Read Full Story)
