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Pilot project in agro-industries planned

Special Correspondent

Sharad Pawar

NEW DELHI: The Global Agro-Industries Forum (GAIF) on Wednesday recalled Gandhiji’s vision that envisaged the full utilisation of manpower and raw products in villages, instead of sending them out and re-buying finished articles.

Inaugurating the GAIF here, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said promotion of agro-industries in rural areas and production catchments could create livelihood opportunities at a fraction of the cost of creating jobs in the organised sectors.

He said the government had decided to launch a Rs. 40-crore pilot project in every State. The programme may be upgraded based on the success of the pilot enterprises.

“A large number of post-harvest technologies have been developed in the recent past. Agro-processing enterprises based on these technologies will be developed for specific production catchments established with self-help groups and operated with adequate hand-holding by the knowledge partners to ensure overall success,” said the Minister.

While noting that the gap between the rich and the poor — people as well as countries — was widening, he said poor people, most of them rural, were being marginalised in the process of growth. “The accepted role of agriculture as the foundation of economic development reinforces the need to re-focus attention on the farm sector. The inextricable linkages between hunger, poverty and rural areas reinforce the need to base agriculture development on sustainability and equality.”

Mr. Pawar said despite recent progress, 790 million people in developing countries and 34 million in industrialised countries and in countries in transition were undernourished. About 1.5 billion people lived in poverty, most of them in developing countries and a majority in rural areas.

Nearly 100 countries are participating in this first-ever international conference of GAIF. Among those who participated were Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation Kandeh Yumkella and President of the International Fund for Agriculture Development Lennart Bage.

Mr. Bage pointed out that in recent years, a number of developing countries have become net importers of food. In countries from Bangladesh to Zambia, nearly 40 per cent of the population was undernourished.

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