NRI farmers’ body proposes farm produce retailing

Hyderabad, Feb 8 : A Group of NRI farmers has mooted the idea of synergizing strength of corporate sector & cooperative bodies for farm produce retailing.

Disclosing details of project in a press release here, Ramesh Patel, Founder Chairman of Indo American Farmers Coalition (IAFC), said that the initiative could ensure better price discovery for the farmers, availability of quality food at an affordable rate for consumers and also help in effective implementation of the food security bill.

The IAFC is a non-profit organization of NRI farmers living in the US and some of its members also hold agriculture land in India. The association plans to set up an SPV to ensure productive use of land parcels of its members.

The IAFC is also in the process of launching a similar program in Korea through PPP model, under which a flat bread making plant will be set up to provide the product to the weaker sections of the society at a reasonable price. UNO, some private investors from the US and Korean Government are partners in the program. IAFC intends to launch such program in India too on a large scale through the same PPP model. Apart from NRIs from the US, UNO, International Finance Corporation (IFC) & NABARD are supposed to be partner in the project execution.

Implementation of such project in India can also help a lot in successful implementation of Food Security Bill.

“We have already made a representation in this regard to some policymakers including the Chairman of Economic Advisory Council of Prime Minister Dr. C. Rangarajan. We hope that our initiative go a long way in improving the conditions of the farmers and the poor in India,” said Ramesh Patel.

As per the blueprint of the idea, conceived by IAFC, one food processing unit in each of the 729 districts of the country and a nationwide chain of ‘Farm to Consumer Shop” will be set up through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) at an investment of about US $ 2.5 billion and the SPV will enter into “Crop Development Contract” with the local “Farmers’ Crop Development Cooperatives” (FCDC).

The contract will provide for procurement of agriculture produce from the farmers at a pre-determined affordable rate and offering the producers share in profit earned through value addition made in the produces. Working as a corporate body, the SPV will also develop infrastructure and sales-marketing network for distribution and marketing of the farm produce, while the cooperative bodies will look after the backward integration aimed at supply of farm produces.

Highlighting the moot-point of the project, the IAFC Chairman said, “The central idea of the project is to bring professional management skill of the corporate sector in the retailing of the farm produce, which will, in turn, make the business, mainly undertaken through the cooperative sector, a lucrative proposition. This holds significance considering the fact that India stands at 97th position in the list of 125 countries providing healthy food to their entire population. Apart from that, extent of wastage of farm produce is also too high. Even in progressive states like Andhra Pradesh, wastage of fruits and vegetables is pegged at Rs. 5,600 crore per annum.”  INN