The central government is working on ‘Good Agriculture Practice’ to benefit the Indian agriculture sector, said Manoj Ahuja, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on Tuesday.
While speaking on ‘Scope of Public-Private Partnerships in Agriculture’, organised by FICCI, Ahuja said that there is a concern at the international level on having sustainable agriculture and good agricultural practices along with environmental concerns.
"This is an area where the government has not yet come out with a policy, but we want to come up with a policy on ‘Good Agriculture Practice. We would have a policy on this, and we would work together with the industry on this,” he added.
Ahuja added that micro-irrigation is a priority area for the government.
“We will work out a model to provide easy financing along with providing subsidies so as to create a simple system for the farmers. We need to address these concerns,” he highlighted.
The secretary further stated that it is imperative for the farmers to get easy and simple solutions to their problems through digital platforms.
We believe in the ability of the farmer and if we give them support via non-financial intervention by providing IT solutions, he added.
“It would be beneficial for the farmers if we can provide these technology interventions through a common open source,” said Ahuja.
While addressing the concerns raised by the industry, Ahuja added that quality agri-inputs is also an area of concern for the government and steps are needed to further improve it.
We can create NABL accredited labs under PPP or under viable gap funding along with robust IT systems for sampling and testing of various seeds, fertilizers and pesticides for supporting the farmers, he said.
Vijaya Lakshmi Nadendla, Joint Secretary Marketing, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and MD, SFAC said that inputs, infrastructure, investment and institutions are the 4 important I’s for a policy framework for the agri sector.
Samuel Praveen Kumar, Joint Secretary (Extension, AIF and I&PS), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare while highlighting the benefits of PPP said that there are emerging technologies like ICT, AI, IoT etc, which are very disruptive technologies and can make farming more predictive.
Meanwhile, Pravesh Sharma, Chairman, FICCI Task Force on FPOs said," We have to recognize that, especially in India if there is one sector which is almost 100 per cent privately owned is agriculture. The policy framework that the government designs have a great impact on how investments flow into agriculture, how markets deliver, and how technology routes."
TR Kesavan, Chairman, FICCI National Agriculture Committee & Group President, TAFE Ltd said that India is capable of doing much more in the agriculture sector, if the government and the private sector come together.