The government will bring out a policy to ensure that farmers get their due share of benefit from value addition of crops.
Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar told a press conference here on Wednesday that the policy would guarantee a minimum price for crops, to make farming more remunerative and attract more youngsters to the sector.
Entrepreneurs setting up units in the proposed agro parks would be required to meet this requirement, he said. “Farmers are left high and dry when multinational companies procure crops at the cheapest rate and appropriate all the profit from value addition. Our objective is to ensure that both farmers and entrepreneurs derive benefit from agricultural processing,” the Minister said.
Pointing out that hardly 10 per cent of the domestic crop production in the State was converted into value-added products, Mr. Kumar said the network of agro parks was expected to address the issue. Three agro parks would be set up in the first phase of the proposed network.
While the agro park for coconut would be established in Kozhikode, that for banana and honey would be based in Thrissur and the one for rice would be located in the Alappuzha-Ernakulam area. Agro parks for rubber, spices, vegetables, fruits and tubers would be set up in the next phase.
The Minister said the cash crunch following the demonetisation of high-value currency had badly affected farmers in the State, leaving them unable to pay wages for labourers and sell their produce. The restrictions on cooperative banks had also affected availability of credit for farmers.
Mr. Kumar said Horticorp had been asked to procure directly from farmers struggling to dispose of their crops.
