Of the total 350 participants at the Food Tech '98, there were 50 representatives of various foreign-owned companies and majority of them had nothing on display except catalogues.

Two things didn't seem to bother neither the organisers nor the participants of the mega agro-bash. One, the high prices of vegetables and the scant, if not poor, participation by foreign countries. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, formally inaugurated the mega-event on Friday and announced a five-point programme for development of the country's agro sector.

Going by the hype and hoopla, one hopes that the event would also attract money inequal proportion. But the impressions of a cross section of participants indicate otherwise and brings to the fore the the question: For whom was the event organised, the farmers who are on a state-sponsored picnic or for wooing investments?

Says one of the local participants, who incidentally is also a speaker at Monday's seminar: "Mega-events of this scale do not attract monies. For one, the seminars seem to be self-congratulatory in nature, they do not address vital issues necessary for comforting both local and foreign participants. This is an event for a totally different purpose, not seriously for attracting monies for projects offered."

The scene at Saturday's Food Tech '98 at Goregoan gave a similar impression. Busloads, truckloads, of farmers from across the state were brought in to attend not just the Food Tech 98 but even the Virat Shetakari Melava (held on Sunday). This prevented the genuine participants and delegates from attending the formal inauguration of the Food Tech by Chief MinisterManohar Joshi. So much so, that the crowd was simply unmanageable by betallion of police force present there.

It is for the first time that any Indian state conceived agriculture as an avenue for profitable investment, both Indian and foreign. And with the direct support of the central government, the country's entire agro and allied sectors were thrown open for investments. Offered on the mega-platform in a composite form are over 100 different projects ranging from seeds and biotechnology to sugar co-generation power projects, agri infrastructure and even dissemination of international and domestic market information to farmers across the state's 40-plus market yards.

The range of investment could be anywhere between Rs 2 crore and Rs 2,940 crore. While official sources estimate Rs 5,000 crore of investments in the coming years, sources at Maharashtra Industrial and Technical Consultancy Organisation Ltd (MITCON), who drafted the sector-specific profiles for state, feel the maximum amount expected isaround Rs 2,000 crore "the balance is for political reasons."

That may be so. But the ruling BJP government seems to be bent upon giving the agro-sector its lost importance. As minister of state for agriculture Som Pal says: India's agriculture is a clear case of capital starvation" Accordingly, the government wants to give this sector the maximum possible support after its clear indication in this regard in the last budget proposals announced in June this year. The latest is the proposal to set up Agriculture Insurance Corporation of India with budgetary allocation of Rs 100 crore.

While the government's intention to give the agro sector the necessary financial and policy boost is very clear, the intention of the mega-agro bash does not seem to be intended only to attract money. The Agro Advantage Maharashtra seemed to be more a political than a commercial event. "Both the central and state governments want to take maximum possible advantage from the event," quipped a corporate participant. One thingthat turned out very clear was the emergence of interests in the agro and allied sectors, from investors and entrepreneurs across the country. Never in the history of Indian agro sector was such a massive participation on a single platform.

Former union minister, Yogendra Alagh during the inaugural ceremony had maintained: This would be a turning point in Indian agricultural sector. The increased purchasing power reinvested in agro, would result in wide diversification of all round demand in the economy. This appeared to be true looking at the type of entities participating at the Food Tech 98. These included companies like Shivaji Estates Live Stock & Farms P Ltd--the GoatWay of India, selling goat farming; range of breweries both local and foreign and even German's engineering giants like Krupp and several others. The range of agro-related activities on display at the NSE Complex at Goregoan was highly impressive.

And even generated interest never seen before. "The companies participating here wouldnever had thought of having visitors of this magnitude in a span of just three days," said a representative of the organisers. Lastly, the seminars at the Oberoi Hotels spread over the three days seemed to be more of a education for relative new entrants to the sector, rather than for serious businessmen.

Foreign participation dismal

Very few deals, if at all, were clinched with foreign partners at the Agro Advantage Maharashtra. Interestingly, the event served as a platform for Israel to market its forthcoming Agritech'99 -- the 14th International Agricultural Exhibition to be held in Israel from September 5-9, 1999.

"The year 1998 was `schwieriges jahr' -- ( a difficult year) for trade with India," said a representative of the German delegation. The German pavilion at the NSE Exhibition grounds, represented around 30 companies and has received some 50 proposals for joint ventures. The organisers were confident of finalising at least eight JVs. Majority of these were for food processingactivities.

The Israel pavilion, representing just eight companies. The Israelis said they were negotiating couple of joint ventures, and will finalise its frequent negotiations with Jain Irrigation for a hi-tech irrigation project in the country. Other countries that participated were Yugoslavia and Polland. No details were forthcoming from these pavilions. Foreign participation was poor. Of all the advanced foreign nations like Israel, Netherlands, UK, USA, and Australia, it was only the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's minister of agriculture Nedeljko Sipovac who participated in the inaugural session on Friday. Sipovac was the guest of honour, while there were none from UK or US or Australia.

The foreign participation at both Food Tech 98 and Global Investors Convention by other countries was minimal. And this was largely due to the ignorance on the part of the state bureaucracy.

Said one of the participants of the UK delegation currently in India marketing UK's agro related activities: "We had beenin touch with the state government for the past few months, but there was simply no reply from their side. This is the main reason for the poor participation of the UK companies. As regards participation of other major countries, the global sanctions slapped against India following the two nuclear blasts in May this year proved to be a major deterrent. Said a representative of a foreign country requesting anonymity: International participation could have been on a much larger scale but was less primarily on three grounds. One, sanctions slapped by some of the leading western countries, the ongoing global recessionary trends, and very little time available for garnering participants from various countries.