Welcoming industrialists to invest in the agriculture sector, West Bengal Agriculture Minister Purnendu Basu said that the state was lagging way behind other states in organic farming.
Basu asserted that there were ample opportunities in the agriculture sector in the state and urged industrialists to invest while assuring that land would not be a problem and help would be provided by the government.
"In West Bengal we are discussing so much about organic farming, writing about it but we have failed to progress in this sector in comparison to other states," he said at the inauguration of Agricultural Exhibition and Conference, 2014 at Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya at Mohanpur.
"It is quite sad that we don't even have the power to certify any organisation as an organic one. In fact, the way we are continuing our farming in West Bengal will not help much in the long run. We have not done much in terms of spreading organic farming in the state... It's has been done on a comparatively low key.
"We have to fight for our rights and for that we should increase organic farming in our state, train our farmers and provide them with all kind of assistance," he said at the programme yesterday.
Agriculture land to man ratio in the state was 'not good' and there is hardly any scope to increase land for agriculture, Basu said.
But certain part of the land in the state is neither used for agriculture nor for industries and so there is a scope to invest.
"Industry and agriculture in the state will go hand in hand... As a stakeholder I will request industrialists to invest here in the agro-based sector. Only investing in the manufacturing industry will not help states like ours where we have marginal farmers. We have ample scope in the state, you (industrialists) come and investigate here. Our government is ready to provide you land which is our capital.
"We have to look into why we are falling behind while other states are advancing... We have to enhance job opportunities here as well as bring in more and more farmers into agriculture," he added.
