The Karnataka government announced the Global Agri-Business and Food Processing Summit in Bangalore on Friday. The summit is being conducted at a time when the sector is in dire straits with the fertility of the soil and water resources being a cause for concern.
“The fertility of the soil and water resource have reduced and contamination has increased due to adoption of modern agriculture methods. This calls for new insights to bring about reforms in agriculture sector,” said Karnataka Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda. He said, the government intends to encourage the creation of agriculture basic infrastructure and starting of agri-based industries. Against this background, the state has implemented the ‘Agriculture Business Development Policy’ which aims to encourage more investment in agriculture sector.
A special purpose vehicle — ‘Karnataka Agri-Business Development Board’ — has been set up under KEPEC to supervise the process of agri-business investment. The main objective of the policy, according to Gowda, is to attract more investment to agriculture by creating favourable environment to undertake agri-business activities so that we achieve comprehensive development in agriculture. Towards this, as the first step, the state has decided to host the summit which will have Netherlands as the partner nation of the summit.
To promote the summit, said Gowda, road shows have been held in Israel, Netherlands and France. Similar meets have also been held in Kolkata, New Delhi and Mumbai. Karnataka showed the possibilities of investment in agriculture and related sectors in Karnataka. Gowda said, he had attended the meetings in New Delhi and Mumbai and met a few select investors there.
The summit aims to promote sustainable agri-activities; increase incomes from agriculture by increasing productivity; develop agriculture basic infrastructure; develop food processing units along with agri-based industry; skill development and generation of employment; and creation of facilities that can bring more profit to the farmers by increasing the agriculture exports from the state..
The summit is expected to attract investments of around Rs 51,700 crore towards the upgrade of agriculture basic infrastructure, modernisation, processing, agriculture, horticulture and tourism sectors.
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The sectors that the state has identified as potential areas for investment include post-harvest facilities; upgrade, modernisation and development of existing facilities; internal support facilities; and development of special facilities of agriculture food processing industries.
In addition to that, the state has also presented a separate agriculture budget to empower the sector, said Gowda.