Mumbai, Jan 25: AgriCorp India 2000, a three-day international conferenceand exhibition will be held in Mumbai from February 14-16. The seminar isaimed at finalising a strategy paper on corporatisation of agriculture andto prepare the country's agro sector to meet the emerging challenges fromthe developed world post 2002, whereafter India will have to open itsagriculture sector.The seminar will be jointly organised by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce andIndustry (BCCI), Agriculture Products Export Development Authority (Apeda)and some of the leading corporates like Tata Industries and Hindustan Lever,apart from leading financial institutions like ICICI and foreign banks likeRabo Bank.
Speaking on the need for corporatisation of agricultural sector, TataIndustries managing director KA Chaukar said, "It's time that India lookedat agriculture in totality and prepare itself to meet the emergingcompetition". Indian agriculture and agri-business will have to integrate,introduce modern farm management practices and build efficiencies throughmodern corporate practices to meet the emerging competition from developedworld, Chaukar said.
"We need to focus minds of various people at various levels engaged in thebusiness of agriculture and related activities till the product reaches theconsumers, link them all through a common bond and appraise them all of theimplications of the World Trade Organisation," he added.
The deliberations at the conference will help us device a strategy paper onthe related issue which will be presented to the government, Chaukar said.The objective of the conference is to finalise a paper to be presented tothe Government and will cover the following areas:-
Competitiveness of Indian agricultural sector,
Farm Management Systems,
Supply Chain Management and
Finance & Crop Insurance and Marketing.According to Chaukar, the overall strengthening of the agri sector is moreimportant than ownership of land. "In corporatisation of agriculture, whatis important is the efficient use of the available corporate tools like easyflow of credit, risk management practices and benchmarking. The concepts oflogistics, procurement and marketing of products among others will also bediscussed," he added.
According to ICICI general manager Chanda Kochhar, "Each segment of the agrisector needs to be made viable for a complete loop of the food chain,indicating sufficient quantum of funds at right time and cost needs to bemade available. Depending upon the different risk factor for differentsegments, finance will the major facilitator of the value chain".
Accordingly, ICICI has participated in assisting over 50 different projectsjointly under the USAID programme. Rallis India's vice-president(agribusiness) Satish Sohoni said, "India will continue to be a agriculturecountry and the value-addition in the agri sector will have a tremendousimpact on the country's gross domestic product".
India being a signatory of the WTO agreements, post 2002 India will not beable to impose any quantitative restriction on imports of agriproduce tariffbarriers and over a period of time it should be brought down. The developedcountries could still impede imports from Indian agricultural produce byresorting to non-tariff barriers like HACCP and good manufacturingpractices. And therefore, the need for a comprehensive strategy paper tostrengthen the agri sector.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.