Food parks not appetising enough

Many of the food parks being set up by the government in the Tenth Plan period have failed to attract investors.

R Balakrishnan, executive director of Nabard, said, "Barring a few food parks, most, like the one in Virudunagar in Tamil Nadu, have not been able to bring in investments."

The government decided to set up food parks to bring down operational costs for small businesses and improve marketing opportunities through common facilities and a cluster approach. The government has offered assistance to 40 parks so far and set aside Rs 28.93 crore for the parks.

Speaking at Agricorp 2004 recently on micro credit and farm financing, he said that 140 regional rural banks (RRBs) were back into profit.

Commercial banks accounted for 52 per cent of rural credit, while institutional credit grew from 7.3 per cent in 1951 to 66.3 per cent.

Several programmes for crop loans and credit support have been launched, but "there is still scope to improve. The key is to discover the prices and plan crop diversification accordingly," he pointed out.

Kisan credit cards have been issued after assessment of flexi-credit needs for multi-crop farming to 3.5 crore farmers, up from just 6.06 lakhs since 1989. Through the cards, farmers received subsidised accident insurance cover as well as cash credit at low interest rates.

Open to all, the cards had a limited consumption component. However, fewer than expected farmers were availing credit.