Inaugurating the 13th National conference on agricultural marketing here today, Reddy said plan would be to create both cold storages and processing facilities close to the production centres in rural areas to reduce wastage.

Slow pace of agriculture marketing infrastructure have resulted in the huge wastage of post-harvest agriculture produce in the country, he said adding food grains wasted could have fed about 117 million people for a year.

A recent estimate by the ministry of food and civil supplies puts the total preventable post-harvest losses of food grains at about 20 million tonnes a year, which is nearly 10 per cent of the total production, he said.

Government has initiated serveral steps to improve marketing infrastructure in rural areas, he said adding during Ninth Plan period panchayats would also be encouraged to involve themselves actively in creating marketing facilities at rural level.

Direct marketing would be promoted in the interests of both the producers and the consumers, he said.

Reddy said an action programme was drawn up under Ninth plan period target to achieve a growth rate of about 4.5 per cent in agricultural output and production of 234 million tonnes of food grains by 2001-2002.

The Plan envisages a mission mode approach for planning and implementation of the production programme at the central, state and also district levels, he added.

`An estimate on food requirements suggests that production of 300 million tonnes of food grains should be adequate to meet the total consumption requirements of the estimated population of over a billion by 2007,' he said.

Stating that food grains production have increased substantiallly in the post-independence period, he said the production increased from 50.8 million tonnes in 1950-51 to about 192.43 million tonnes in 1997-98.

Referring to the implication of World Trade Organisation(WTO) agreement on Indian agriculture sector, he said the liberalization of trade in agriculture as part of the agreement would be beneficial to the country only if substantial export surpluses were generated in the sector.

It was estimated that the domestic agriculture was required to grow at three per cent per annum to meet its internal demands alone, he said adding unless significant technological breakthroughs were achieved, the country may not have appreciable surpluses of food grains and other commodities for exports, he said.

Reddy, referring to the export potential of agricultural commodities, said it has shown a steady increase from Rs 10,811 crore in 1993-94 to Rs 20,053 crore in 1997-98 and its share in total exports was in the range of 15 to 18 per cent during the period.

India has to develop agro-based exports by identifying specific commodities for exports, major markets abroad, their requirements in terms of quantity, quality, packaging, he said.

Export-oriented production on the lines of the industrial sector would have to be evolved for implementation in the agriculture sector to meet the requirements of the international markets, he said.

In his opening address, director general of National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) RC Choudhury said prospects of the agri-business sector in the country were quite good in the present situation.

Statistics indicate that since 1991 fruits and vegetable processing industry has registered an annual growth of 26 per cent, he said.