UP to invest Rs 270 bn in agriculture

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government is aiming at investments worth Rs 270 billion in the agro-industry sector over the next 10 years, a government official said Wednesday.

State agriculture production commissioner Anis Ansari said here: "A bulk of this investment will come in the private sector while the government's share in creating infrastructure will be about 10 percent."

Leading players of the industry converging here Friday and Saturday will prepare a blueprint for the next 10 years.

"Besides CII, IIA, NABARD, APEDA and Bank of Baroda, we will have representatives from the well known Allana Group, Venkatesh Hatcheries and a few other agri-based industries participating in the two-day brain-storming session here," Ansari said.

He said investments worth Rs.5 billion had already come in the past two years, but "that is just a tip of the iceberg considering the vast potential of this state".

The official added: "Most of this investment had come in the food grain-related sector, but now our concentration will be towards promotion of all other areas like dairy, vegetable and meat.

"Even as Uttar Pradesh leads in the production of wheat, milk, sugarcane and potato, as also other vegetables in the country, a substantial quantity of these goods go unutilised because of their perishable nature. Our focus is therefore going to be on putting all that surplus production to economically fruitful use in industry."

"To give an example, state's daily milk production is about 400,000 litres out of which nearly 50,000 litres goes waste because of the absence of a desired cold chain and suitable storage and transportation facilities."

He also pointed out that nearly 25 percent of the 10 million tonnes of potato and 23 million tonnes of other vegetables produced every year was rotting either in the fields or the markets.

Ansari hoped that the move would go a long way in transforming the economy of the state that has 74 percent of its workforce engaged in agriculture.

"Agriculture contributes 31 percent towards the state's economy, but the return accruing to the three-fourth population engaged in the sector is abysmally low," he lamented.

"A shift of part of this workforce to the agri-based industry could do wonders," he added.