MAIDC was represented by the state agriculture minister and its chairman Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil while Richard Champagne, Tertium chairman and CEO signed on behalf of his company at the concluding ceremony of the four-day Agro Advantage Maharashtra Global Investor's Convention in the city.

Chief minister Manohar Joshi, state chief secretary P Subrahmaniam, minister of state for agriculture Harshvardhan Patil, horticulture minister Shobha Phadanvis and the Shetkari Sanghatana supremo Sharad Joshi were present on the occasion.

Ujjwal Uke, MAIDC managing director told The Financial Express that MAIDC will do the sourcing andevaluation of opportunities while the Tertium will provide technical advise and the actual sourcing of fund.

A state government press release said that the uniqueness of this fund would be that part from creating a dedicated financial vehicle to participate in agri business units. The emphasis would be laid for the infrastructure to be built for agro-business development in the state. MAIDC will source the number of projects available for direct investment. Champagane stressed the need to bring in technologies related to post harvest and bio-culture especially from US and Australia. He congratulated the state government for the bold initiative taken to give a radical change in the policy for agriculture for Maharashtra.

Tim Evans, KPMG, Australia who was also present on the occasion said that there were many opportunities that could be developed through collaborations with Australian companies. Observers said that with today's MoU, Maharashtra has emerged as the first state to take an initiative in thecreation of agro-fund in the country. In fact, state government's initiative was lauded by prime minister AB Vajpayee at the inaugural function of Agro Advantage Maharashtra on Friday and has asked other states to emulate.

It must be mentioned here that the centre has decided to create such fund, however, the its size was yet to be finalised. The union food processing secretary PPS Bhatnagar had made a statement in this regard while speaking on finance for agriculture and related activities.

Vikhe-Patil had already stated that the fund will be utilised largely for the creation of infrastructure required for agri business and added that it will also encourage units from this sector in a big way in Maharashtra.