Kahini Chakraborty – Mumbai

The fifth edition of Global Economic Summit (GES), an annual flagship event organised by the World Trade Centre (WTC) Mumbai and All India Association of Industries (AIAI) witnessed serious discussions on innovative financing options for agriculture. Deliberations brought to fore the need for innovative financing instruments such as warehouse receipts, structured finance, innovative crop insurance products, microfinance, risk capital like private equity, venture capital funding, etc.

With the theme ‘Enabling Food for All’, the three-day summit, held from November 19-21, 2015 at the Expo Centre of WTC, Mumbai, witnessed participation from around 500 leaders from across the world. The summit had opportunities for networking through plenaries, panel discussions, B2B meetings, industry visits and cultural events.

Chairing the session on ‘Innovative Financing for Agriculture’, Raj Benahalkar, chief strategy and risk, National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) highlighted that according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), developing countries will need to invest around US$ 209 billion per year to meet the demand for food supply as compared to the current level of investment of US$ 142 billion.

The panelists included Meera Mishra, coordinator, International Fund for Agricultural Development; B V S Prasad, general manager, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD); Umesh Revankar, managing director & CEO, Shriram Transport Finance; and Dr Dinesh, chief executive, National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI).

Mishra opined, “Microfinance is the main tool as it can be used to bring a credit discipline among farmers. This will help towards positioning farmers as bankable individuals and build trust between them and the banks.” While Dinesh highlighted, “There needs to be constant technological advancement in the agricultural sector as well. The ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Government of India needs to be directed towards the agricultural sector. With India’s growing population, and land holdings reducing, there needs to be area specific research done to revive the agriculture sector and make farming a profitable business. Social recognition also needs to be given to farmers. Encouraging cooperative society culture among farmers will help in establishing a single window clearance for agriculture processes.”

The summit had senior officials from FAO, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Procurement Division (UNPD) World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) and the World Trade Centers Association (WTCA), New York and foreign universities like Bocconi (Italy), North Carolina State University in the US and University of Manitoba in Canada.