GREEN SHOOTS FOR THE FUTURE

The golden age of Indian agriculture may finally have begun.

The Rs 1 lakh crore Agriculture Inf­rastructure Fund, launched on August 9, will support farmers, primary agricultural credit societies, farmer­producer organisations (FPOs) and agri entrepreneurs in building community farming assets and post­harvest infrastructure. These assets will enable farmers to get greater value for their produce as they will be able to store and sell at higher prices, reduce wastage, increase processing and add value. About 85 million farmers are already getting investment support (six tranches have been disbursed) under the PM­Kisan scheme. India exports over $35 billion worth of agricultural products annually. But there are still many challenges—the vagaries of nature, developing high-quality seeds, raising the right crops under diverse agro­climatic conditions among them. The government, through the Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), is promoting FPOs by mobilising farmers and helping them register as companies. Currently, there are 7,300­plus FPOs, with 4.3 million small producers in the country. Some 4,000 are supported by NABARD and SFAC.

ITC

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Taking Up the Farmers’ Baton

On June 3, when the Union cabinet cleared three ordinances to reform the agriculture sector, the biggest cheer came from the ITC headquarters in Kolkata. The country’s biggest procurer of wheat (2.2 million tonnes this year) after the state­run Food Corporation of India, ITC looks at this as an opportunity to directly reach out to farmers to procure their produce.