In the wake of policy initiative taken by it, Gujarat government hopes to attract more investments in agriculture, agro and food processing sectors during upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit-2009. Government officials expect that these sectors will witness higher investment this time than what was registered during the previous Vibrant Summit in 2007.
Agri, food and agro processing sectors are likely to see signing of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) to the tune of Rs. 15,000 crore by various companies during Vibrant Summit to be held this month. A toal of 61 MoUs involving a cumulative investment of Rs. 10,375 crore were inked during the last Vibrant Summit held in January 2007.
When contacted agriculture minister of Gujarat, Dilip Sanghani said that the total investment in agri, food and agro food prorcessing sector is expected to be higher than the investment pledged during 2007. "Gujarat government has taken number of policy level initiatives to attract investment in these sectors. Despite ongoing recession, more and more companies are likely to ink agreements with the state government for their projects in these three sectors due to conducive policies of the state government," he added.
Gujarat government is also likely to announce a new Agri Business Policy during the summit. Gujarat government has offered various incentives to attract the investment in agriculture and allied sectors. Some of the incentives include declaration of food processing industry as seasonal industry, cost subsidy to large projects in food processing sector and sops and incentives to enhance competitiveness of small and medium enterprises, etc.
It may be mentioned here that in order to speed up the implementation of projects in agro and food processing industry, Gujarat government has recently decided to accord "Deem NA" status for the agri land acquired by any company to start project in agri and food processing sectors. This means that companies need not wait till the agri land is converted to non-agriculture land (NA).
"All these incentives and policy level decision are likely to attract agro and food processing companies to set up their projects in Gujarat," government officials said.
