Union minister of state for food processing and agriculture Harish Rawat today favoured foreign direct investment (FDI) in the farm sector and said the food security bill would be placed in the coming monsoon session of the Parliament.
“FDI in retail is one issue. But we actually need FDI at the production level in the agriculture sector where the investment flow is less,” Rawat told Business Standard on the sidelines of a national seminar on horti business here. FDI in retail would not be much help to the agriculture sector due to various concerns like procurement issues.
In this regard, he said an investment of Rs 40,000 crore is required to boost the agricultural sector where the total budgetary provision is Rs 24,000 crore. “So, there is a huge gap for which we need heavy investments,” he said.
Referring to the food security bill addressing issues related to the agricultural sector, he said it would be placed in the coming monsoon session of the Parliament. “If everything goes well, we would like to place it on the first day of the session itself.”
Rawat expressed satisfaction with the overall food production in the country with a record production of oilseeds and pulses.
Rawat said the Centre was also trying to focus on agricultural research works by enhancing the spending in the 12th Five-year Plan. “Our efforts will be to increase the expenditure on agricultural research works to one per cent of the GDP from the current 0.5 per cent,” Rawat said.
The Centre has also launched efforts to bring convergence in the agricultural sector by linking agricultural institutions, agri-growers and market players. He expressed concern over the dwindling size of farm holdings saying big infrastructure projects were shrinking the land at the cost of agriculture.
Rawat also said the centre would soon launch the food processing national mission on the lines of the national horticulture mission. “This will address various issues that include heavy wastages and losses of horticulture crops.”