The Punjab government, whose new industrial policy is being framed by international agency, Unido, has decided to ?delink? agro processing units from the purview of the proposed industrial policy and come up with a separate agro industrial policy. The decision follows a recent meeting between leading industrialists from Punjab and Sukhbir Singh Badal, MP and working president of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal.
Among the industrial houses that are in the process of setting up units in the state and attended the meeting were Coke, Jain Irrigation, Adanis, Dabur, Tata, ITC, Amrit Banaspati, Premium Farm Fresh, Pure Foods, Nuway Organics, Mrs Bectors, Satnam Agri, Sunstar, LT Overseas etc. According to a CEO of an industrial house, who was present at the meeting, most people ?raised agro industry-specific problems as also the need to push up investment in the agro industrial sector?. It was during the meeting that Sukhbir Badal expressed the view that agro industrial units deserved a separate policy in view of their specific requirements.
Later, Sukhbir Badal told FE in an interview that ?along with the new Industrial Policy-2007, a separate agro industrial policy aimed at removing all bottlenecks to bring in liberal investment will be announced by the middle of December 2007?.
The other reason for a separate policy is that not only the Adanis, Tatas and ITC, but other big business houses, like Reliance and Bharti, have also lined up investment plans to promote agro-processing business in the state. Reliance and Bharti are keen on synergising both their and the state?s role in a bid to move the agro-processing business away from its existing unorganised format. Both the groups have evinced interest in the diversification of agriculture in Punjab.
Unfolding a roadmap to identify the potential of agro-processing and contract farming, the Punjab government has already brought over seven lakh acres of land under contract farming, covering about one lakh farmer families. It proposes to cover more than 3.60 lakh acre under the diversification programme during 2007-08.
Sources said the state government would set up four special purpose vehicles to focus on development of citrus and fruit juices, value-added horticulture, viticulture and organic farming. The government has asked agri-experts, economists and policymakers to chalk out a multi-pronged strategy to diversify agriculture, besides conserving natural resources to make it more sustainable and remunerative, thereby substantially benefiting small and marginal farmers.
On the need for a separate agro-industrial policy, Badal said ?the Punjab government had realised that no fiscal or economic reforms could succeed without agriculture as natural focus. It was the agriculture-induced Green Revolution of the mid-60s and 70s that led to high economic growth rates, which have eventually plummeted to low depths since the mid-90s as corrective policies were not thought of and applied. The present fault lines in agriculture and allied sectors are a consequence of that failure.
According to information available, in 2006-07, agriculture and allied sectors constituted 42% of the gross state domestic product in Punjab, compared to the 24% average of Indian states. Badal said Punjab occupied only 1.5% of country?s total geographical area but two-thirds of the foodgrains was procured from here to feed deficit states. He said ?the state would have land records computerised to bring transparency in agricultural land deals in a phased manner. The entire land record would be digitised by July 2008, which would give a big boost to agro-industry growth in Punjab?, he added.