Private money plants

The good news is that private investment is on the rise and several agribusiness companies have developed new models to reach out to farmers. And some private entrepreneurs are coming up with innovative ways to invest in the modern supply chain.

Yogi Deveshwar, head of National council of Agriculture, CII spoke of policy interventions required to build a more congenial environment for corporates: ‘‘The private sector is awaiting policy reforms like the industry in 1991…the states should be asked to amend the APMC Act and abolish mandi tax to enable competitive markets to develop,’’ said Deveshwar.

As different panelists ranging from bankers, credit agencies, government and corporates discussed their experiences, it was clear that the relationship between farmers and companies is still nebulous. The panel discussion on contract farming was hotly debated as farmers alleged that the companies had not kept up their commitment to buy back the produce.

There was a realistic assessment of the role of the ‘arhtiya’ in the Indian farming community and the corporates were candid enough to realise that though theoretically it was easy to degrade the concept, the question remained whether companies would be able to provide the same convenience and security to the farmers as the arhtiya.

The CEOs panel with Ajay Shriram of Shriram Industries, Shivakumar of ITC, Raghunath Murthy of Mahindra and Mahindra and R P Khaitan of Solar International, agreed that though there were islands of success, the last mile still remained to be crossed.