Patna, Aug. 21: Some good news awaits the agriculture sector in Bihar. Around 150 potential investors from all over the country met in Patna today, with an aim to invest in the untapped food-processing sector in state. The motive behind the summit was to plan investments in the food-processing sector by boosting the market and database intelligence system. Enhancing crop productivity to ensure availability of the raw material required for the industry and promotion of establishment of processing units close to production areas to avoid additional cost of transportation and wastage were the other issues on the agenda. The Bihar government has prepared an agricultural investment road map, through which district wise target for promotion of selected horticultural crops can be met. The state government will set a target an a three-year project basis including interventions of formation of farmers interest groups, area expansion, pre and post harvest management, market linkages, packaging and processing. Agriculture department chief secretary AK Sinha, said: “Bihar, endowed with very fertile plain land and subtropical climate holds a vast potential for growing a large variety of horticultural crops.†Apart from being the largest producer of litchi in country, Bihar is also ahead of many other states in producing mango, banana, guava, parwal (pointed gourd), tomato, and some other horticultural crops. Despite the large production of these crops, farmers do not get a decent profit due to lack of proper investment and food processing units within the state. Most of these crops are processed in other states and middlemen run away with larger amount of profit while the farmers are left with a nominal with only minimal share going to the farmers. Sinha invited potential investors to invest in the state for growth of the industry and the state. For the betterment of the food processing units in the state, the Bihar Agriculture Management and Extension Training Institute (BAMETI) has selected many districts from as its specific horticulture crop programme for development. Bhagalpur, Darbhanga and Sitamarhi have been chosen as district wise target for the promotion of mango and more particularly jardalu mango, which was once world famous. Similarly, Muzaffarpur, which accounts for nearly 51 per cent of the total litchi production in the country, has also been chosen for specific horticulture crop programme for development. BAMETI director R.K. Sohane said: “To boost horticultural crop production, the state government is to provide Rs 300 crore to farmers as subsidy.†|
||
 |
Summit fillip to Bihar agricultural sector
August 23, 2010 •
