CII to stress farm growth, set up national council

bangalore: with some of the leading members of the confederation of indian industry (cii) already courting the indian agriculture sector, cii has now decided to institutionalise its focus on this literally greenfield sector. cii has now planned to set up a national council for farmer associations, which is being positioned as a platform to promote closer co-operation between different stakeholders in indian agriculture. the national council, which is expected to become functional from early may, would also help provide marketing support to agriculturists. key markets like the eu and us are expected to be targeted for this purpose, a senior official told et . ``cii has the required infrastructure in terms of offices in the country. this will enable the council to start off instantly,â€™â€™ the official said. incidentally, given the new thrust on agriculture in the exim policy, cii is keen that one of the largest markets (china) should be explored. estimates indicate that chinese imports of agriculture products could reach $600bn by â€™05-06 from the current level of $ 250bn. chinaâ€™s annual imports of foodgrains are placed at between 15m and 20m tonnes while it ranks as one of the largest horticulture producers. on the other hand, indiaâ€™s annual production of horticulture items is placed at about 135m tonnes, but close to 30 per cent of the produce is wasted for want of processing facilities. similarly, while foodgrains production has crossed the 200-m tonne-mark, warehouses and godowns are overstuffed carrying over 15m tonnes as stock. corporates like itc, rallis india and hll have already launched programmes to promote contract farming, while others like auto-major mahindra & mahindra are also leveraging their presence in the rural sector to promote agriculture. ciiâ€™s focus on the agri-sector comes at a time when it has identified biotechnology as a sunrise sector. to promote biotechnology, cii is also planning to take a delegation of biotechnologists to the mecca of biotech â€” the usa. earlier speaking at a one-day seminar on ``india & china: challenges of globalisationâ€™â€™ organised by cii and asia centre, k n shenoy, past president of cii said that chinaâ€™s entry into the wto offered good business opportunities for indian corporates. former foreign secretary a p venkateswaran also spoke on the occasion.

CII to stress farm growth, set up national council

With some of the leading members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) already courting the Indian agriculture sector, CII has now decided to institutionalise its focus on this literally greenfield sector.

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