Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

Document on good agricultural practices to be notified shortly

S. Ganesan

It will lead to consumers getting products of uniform quality

TIRUCHI: The Union government has decided in principle to implement the draft national programme for Good Agricultural Practices, `IndiaGAP,' prepared by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

The document, which details good agricultural practices for various crops, is to be notified soon, possibly under the Agmark Act, the APEDA Director, S. Dave, said speaking on the sidelines of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Conference (Agricon 07) organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here on Saturday.

`IndiaGAP' seeks to bring about a major and vital change in agricultural practices adopted by farmers to ensure that consumers are assured of safe, good and uniform quality products.

Mr. Dave disclosed that APEDA has planned to increase financial assistance extended under its various schemes during the XI Plan period.

New components are planned to be introduced to fund more infrastructure projects. More importantly, financial assistance is to be extended to service providers and logistics companies involved in export of agricultural produce.

"We have submitted proposals worth Rs.1,500 crore to the Planning Commission for the XI five-year plan. We hope to get around Rs.100 crore during the first year," Mr.Dave said. Answering a query on the proposed agri-export zone (AEZ) for banana in Tiruchi, Mr. Dave said that the government decided not to give approvals for new AEZs until the existing ones were consolidated to show good performance.

Earlier, addressing farmers at the `Agricon 07,' Mr. Dave said that APEDA was prepared to set up a post-harvest facility for agriculture produce in Tamil Nadu if the government forwarded a proposal. APEDA was also prepared to set up a cold storage unit for agricultural produce at the Tiruchi airport for the benefit of exporters of vegetables and fruits.

Though there was much scope for exporting banana from the country,

The share

India's share in world banana trade was negligible. India produced about 16.8 tonnes of banana annually, accounting for 23 per cent of the world production. But nearly 30 per cent of the fruit produced in the country was wasted.

Tamil Nadu accounted for 21 per cent of the banana production in the country and there was good scope for exports to the Middle East and markets outside Europe. This would require developing farmer linkages, encouraging investments in infrastructure, standardising pre-harvest and post-harvest management and identifying target markets.

APEDA was extending assistance to exporters through various schemes for market development, market promotion, packaging, infrastructure development such as cold chains and grading lines, research and development and training, Mr. Dave said.

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