The Maharashtra Cabinet on Tuesday cleared a proposal to implement the ‘State of Maharashtra’s Agribusiness and Rural Transformation (SMART)’ project assisted by the World Bank.
The project will have an investment of ₹2,200 crore, of which 70% (₹1,554 crore) will be from the World Bank, while the State government’s share will be of 26.67% (₹592 crore). The remaining 3.33% (₹74 crore) will come from the Maharashtra Village Social Transformation Foundation (VSTF).
The Cabinet also approved setting up a project management cell, for which 37 posts — 14 government and 23 on contract — will be created. The Agriculture Department will act as a nodal agency, while a project coordination committee under the VSTF managing director will coordinate between Agriculture, Marketing, Cooperation, Animal Husbandry and Rural Development departments.
A steering committee under the chief secretary will take policy decisions for SMART.
The project will help support value addition in post-harvest segments of value chains, facilitate enterprise promotion and business investment. It will also be involved in forming farmer producer groups, linking farmers to the market, and ensuring safe food for consumers which will ultimately lead to increase in the farmers’ income, and creating more sources of livelihood.
The project will aim at forming self-help groups, village level groups, farmer producer companies and extending skill improvement training. It involves creating a value-added chain between farmers and private business entities. Division-wise market facilitation centres will be set up, which will have agricultural produce market committees, farmer producer groups, private market and warehousing corporation.