FPJ Special! Shivraj Singh Chouhan, experts discuss Madhya Pradesh’s Agri-Revolution
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan addressing ‘MP’s glorious agri-revolution’ conference organised by the Free Press Group and Moneycontrol.com in collaboration with MP agriculture department at Hotel Marriott in Indore on Sunday. Present on the dais (from left) are Free Press Group Managing Director JK Karnani, Indore Mayor Malini Gaud and NABARD CGM SK Bansal. The Free Press Journal and Moneycontrol.com in collaboration with Madhya Pradesh’s agriculture department organised a conference on MP’s glorious agri-revolution at Indore on Sunday evening. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was the chief guest at the event.
Indore Mayor Malini Gaud, NABARD CGM S K Bansal, Suhas Joshi (Head-Sustainability, Bayer group), Amit Vatsyayan, Partner at E&Y, Bharat Char (Head R&D at Mahyco), Amitabh Mohan (DGM, NABARD), Rajnikant Rai (CEO, ITC-Agri Business), Narendra Dhandre (DGM, Netafim), DN Pathak (executive director, SOPA) and Dr. Rama Chari (Associate Director, Material Science group, RRCAT) were among the prominent panelists who discussed ways and means to further boost MP’s glorious agri-revolution. The conference was moderated by RN Bhaskar, Consulting Editor of Free Press Journal. Take a look below at some key points discussed and announcements made below.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan elicited a thunderous applause from farmers when he announced on Sunday that rates of farm produce would be fixed per acre during his next term in MP, post assembly elections.
Chouhan was addressing farmers and other guests at the conference. The Chief Minister made a host of announcements to address problems of farmers. He said that a mechanism would be developed to fix crop rate per acre which would be over and above the existing minimum support price and the Bhavantar crop payment scheme. He also said that in order to ensure better farm prices for farmers an Agriculture Produce Export Board would be set up in Madhya Pradesh. Again, to stop excessive production of a single crop, a system would be developed to guide farmers into apportion areas of their farm for different crops.
Panelists engage in healthy discussion at MP’s Agri-Revolution at conference organised by Free Press Journal and Moneycontrol.com
Like most sectors, the agriculture sector has been increasingly embracing technology. But in case of agriculture, technology is utilised largely in stages relating to pre-production and production. But when it comes to post production, there is not much awareness among farmers.
“Every consumer is a buyer and every house can be a marketplace,” said Rajnikant Rai, CEO, ITC-Agri Business. This can only possible if farmers embrace technology to reach the consumer or buyer. This means the farmers will have to become responsible marketers too. “The government should be an enabler and help buyers reach farmers.” The ENAM (electronic national agriculture market) concept that the government introduced recently is meant to connect farmers with their future buyers. That can be a game-changer.
Experts agreed that the state would need to create opportunities that allowed the flow of value to primary producers. Suhas Joshi, Head-Sustainability, Bayer group, South Asia, was clear that this was the only sustainable solution. According to him, “Contract farming system was a good solution, because the basic logic – sustainable income for cultivators and supply visibility for processors – could not be doubted. However it is necessary to tweak the concept with the clear objective that farmers get money rather than middlemen.”
Amit Vatsyayan, Partner at E&Y laid out four core areas of attention. First was to stop value loss of 20-30 per cent which goes away from the farmer’s income and does not do anything for the buyer. Next was to create more value, mainly through warehousing and processing. Then was the need to encourage farmers to switch from just selling their output en masse, to participating in sorting, grading and use of infrastructure like pack- houses.