AP Bureau.
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Bhubaneswar, 15th May: CII Odisha State Office in association with along with MSME Department Government of Odisha on Friday organized 2nd FARM2FORK 2015- “Seminar cum Exposition on Food Processing & Agribusiness Potential of Odisha”.
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Addressing in the inaugural session as Chief Guest , G C Pati, IAS, Chief Secretary, Government of Odisha raised concern about the declining share of margin to farmers in the overall price paid by consumers. He suggested that the margin level for Farmers should be kept at around 50%.
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He imposed on forming Farmers Associations and to exercise Primary Processing, value addition and marketing of their own products to increase their own revenue share. He requested CII to hand hold Farmers in forming such associations.
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Pati highlighted that there has been a significant decline in the Odisha’s agriculture sector’s impact on the state GSDP, from 27% in 2001 the percentage has steeply decreased to 16% in 2011. However the percentage of population dependent on cultivation has only come down from 64% to 61% as per the 2001 and 2011 census respectively.
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Rajesh Verma, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Government of Odisha laid emphasis on Post Harvest Management to arrest huge loss of Horticulture(25-30%) and Agricultural Products(8-10%). He mentioned that the yearly Loss incurred amounts to Rs 50,000 Crore.
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Speaking about the growth in Food Processing Sector Verma pointed that, the growth in food processing sector is 8% which is higher than that of Manufacturing sector which has grown at a pace of 6% whereas Agriculture Sector’s growth is at 3.3%. He further enlightened the house on the plan of agriculture department of increasing the cultivable land (Khariff) from Sixty lakh hector to Seventy lakh hector. He further elaborated on Farm Mechanization, Balancing NPK Level, Integrated Farming, Cold Storage Policy of the State.
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Panchanan Dash, IAS, Secretary, Department of MSME, Government of Odisha briefed the importance of finance , research extension, Risk reduction , Integrated Farming for the growth of Farming in the state. Dash further suggested that some district administration in Odisha like in the districts of Deogarh, Ganjam, Gajapati, Nabrangpur etc are very keen in encouraging Investments in Food Processing Sector.
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Earlier D S Ravindra Raju, Chairman, CII Odisha State Council and Whole time Director, Paradeep Phosphates Ltd, in his opening remarks highlighted the issue of Imbalanced use ,excessive use (particularly, urea) and the inadequate use of fertilizers across the country . He further added that According to agricultural scientists, the NPK ratio in India should be 4(N): 2(P): 1(K), whereas it is 9:3:1 currently.
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Pradipta Mohanty, Convenor, Agriculture Panel, CII Odisha State Council & Chairman, Surendra Agritech Pvt Ltd, Susanta Nanda, IFS, Director, Directorate of Horticulture, Government of Odisha and P K Gupta, Head, TTBD, CFTRI also addressed the house in the subsequent technical sessions.
