It wasn’t just the West Bengal government wooing FDI in agriculture. The Centre, too, said it was “very clear” on the need for FDI and the private sector to enter agriculture.‘‘We are very clear that we want FDI and have communicated this to the highest level,’’ said Radha Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, at the World Economic Forum on agriculture.‘‘If you want tax concessions, we can work that out too,’’ she added urging a room-full of potential investors to invest in agriculture.Despite this, there are impediments on the ground stalling FDI. Three years after the model APMC Act was finalised by the Centre, only 10 states have modified their acts.This prevents private players from sourcing their products from farmers directly. For example, the German retail Metro shop at Bangalore is still not functional as Karnataka is yet to modify its Acts.Asked about the slow pace of reforms, Singh said the Centre had even tied up some subsidies to conditions that individual states amend their APMC acts.This is apart from other infrastructure roadblocks like bad roads and shortage of electricity. ‘‘We are trying our best.serious as we are about changing, there is only so much we can do,’’ said Singh.
