India’s department of agriculture has requested a Rs50bn (US$902m) budget over the next five years to promote collaboration between farmers and private companies to improve supply chain efficiencies.
The department aims to achieve this through its Public-Private Partnership for Integrated Agricultural Development (PPP-IAD) initiative. This will encourage private companies to work with farmers to produce, harvest, process, transport, and market various agricultural crops. According to a report by the Business Standard it is hoped the scheme will involve as many as one million farmers.
A major focus of the initiative will be to free the fresh produce trade from the ambit of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act. While how this is enacted varies between states, it generally requires fresh produce trading take place in a notified market with registered traders (commission agents).
According to the Business Standard, under the PPP-IAD initiative a company could propose a project involving at least 10,000 farmers over a three to five year time frame that covers all aspects from production to marketing. It is envisioned the company would invest on average around Rs100,000 per famer with the government then contributing up to Rs50,000 per farmer.
The ministry has already received 33 project proposals the newspaper reported.
A project would involve forming farmers into producer groups and registering them as a joint stock producer company or a co-operative or self-help group.
These cooperatives could apply to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research for improved varieties of seeds and seedlings as well as credit from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.
An increased uptake of technologies using precision farming techniques, primary processing, sorting, grading, washing and packaging is envisioned. Increased investment in value addition clusters as well as warehouses and cold chains are also desired outcomes, the Business Standard reported.
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