Contract farming: States told to give up ‘hypocrisy'

Subodh Kant Sahai ,Union Minister for Food Processing Industries(third from left), releasing a report at a function in Chennai on Tuesday. It was received by M. Rafeeque Ahmed, chairman,FICCI Tamil Nadu State Council. (From right), P. Murari, adviser to FICCI president;A. Padmasingh Isaac, founder and chairman of Aachi Group of Companies and Zainuddin A. Jalil, Trade Commissioner of Malaysian Trade Commission, are in the pi cture.

State governments should give up their “hypocrisy on contract farming,” Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahay said here on Tuesday.

Citing West Bengal, which opposed contract farming of potato for multi-national giant Pepsi, he called for an attitudinal change on the issue.

Mr. Sahay wanted big States such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to set up departments for food processing as done by Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.

There was no point in merely having a policy without a department, he said and added that efforts to set up facilities to process food would not succeed if this was not done.

Food grain worth over Rs.50,000 crore went waste across the country last year owing to lack of storage facilities and food processing initiatives. On an average, the loss was put at 40 per cent of the total production.

Mr. Sahai said that packaging remained the single biggest hurdle to further development of the food processing industry. The Ministry of Food Processing was working with various stake holders and research institutions to find appropriate solutions.

Inaugurating a conference and exhibition on ‘Agribusiness and food processing, Farm to Fork -3,' organised by FICCI Tamil Nadu State Council, Mr. Sahay said that the packaging solutions needed to be of a world-class quality and had to be affordable at the same time.

P. Murari, advisor to president, FICCI, said that if the industry did not continuously upgrade technology, then non-tariff barriers would stand in the way of its progress.

M. Rafeeque Ahmed, chairman, FICCI, Tamil Nadu, said that food processing industry in the country would grow by about 40 per cent by 2015. One per cent growth in the industry would translate to direct employment to 5 lakh people.

A. Padmasingh Isaac, chairman, Taskforce – Farm to Fork, said that food processing industry had to be treated like infrastructure industry to enable its rapid growth.

V. Prakash, Director, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, said that no other country would work on traditional Indian food stuff.

Mohammed Zainuddin A. Jalil, Trade Commissioner, Malaysian Trade Commission, and Paisan Maraprygsavan, Deputy Consul General (Commerce), Thai Trade Centre, explained the facilities and incentives offered in their countries for the sector.