West Bengal admits farm sector lacks infrastructure

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today requested private companies to invest in agro-food processing but admitted lack of a marketing network was a major hurdle in the state. He also admitted drawbacks in infrastructure in the state, but assured that these would be rectified.

"West Bengal has the advantage of six agro-climatic regions, abundant water and soil suited to the agro-food processing industry, but there are some lacunae in infrastructure like cold chains, multipurpose cold storage and marketing mechanism," Bhattacharjee said in his valedictory address at Food Tech India 2004.

The chief minister said, "The state lacks storage facility and market mechanism and a huge quantity of food and vegetables are destroyed during transportation, but we have identified these and are trying our best to solve the infrastructure related problems for the food and processing industry."

The government would take the responsibility of developing infrastructure like warehouses, marketing and multi-purpose cold storages.

Bhattacharjee claimed the state's food processing sector received 61 proposals involving Rs 154 crore in 2001-02, which increased to 118 proposal worth Rs 212 crore in 2002-03 and further to 155 proposals amounting to Rs 327 crore in 2003-04.

He urged investors to take advantage of the opportunities in the state despite infrastructure glitches.

"The state is setting up research and development centres for the agro-processing industry at Kalyani and Jalpaiguri districts in collaboration with Kalyani and North Bengal agri research universities," he said.

The state has requested the Centre to help set up an institute for training in agro-food processing industry.

The state was exporting roses to the Netherlands and west Asia. "The state is trying to mobilise the private sector for investment in floriculture and horticulture. ICICI is helping set up a centre at Mangpu to collect flowers from Kalimpong and transport it to Bagdogra airport for export," the chief minister said.Fisheries were another area of importance.

He said exports were trying to sell fish overseas through a processing zone near Jadavpur. Exports from next year could go to China, the chief minister claimed.