Government gets proposals of Rs 8,500 crore under small farmers policy

NEW DELHI: The Agriculture Ministry, which is preparing a policy to provide end-to-end solution for small farmers with help from the private sector, has received investment proposals worth Rs 8,500 crore from firms like Adani and ITC.

"We are working on a policy to initiate a public-private partnership to set up small farmers' companies that will deal from farm land to retail level. We received 35 proposals worth Rs 8,500 crore from companies like Adani Group and ITC," Agriculture Secretary P K Basu said.

The expression of interest ( EOI) was invited to assess the response of private companies to the yet to be launched policy, which will be implemented from the 2012-13 Kharif season (summer), he said.

Basu further said that the policy would enable private companies organise minimum of 10,000 small farmers to form a company to work in various fields of agriculture like seeds, irrigation and infrastructure development, among others.

The proposed company will work on project mode and the expenditure for it would be born equally by the government and private sector, he said.