Need to address bottlenecks vis-a-vis land and capital, technology and infrastructure

At a recently concluded webinar by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, FICCI  entitled, ‘Opportunity to reinvent Agriculture @Policy Reforms’, saw leaders discuss the pros and cons of the three ordinances that were recently introduced by the GoI to usher in major agricultural market reforms.

Nandita Gupta, Joint Secretary (Storage and PG), Department of Food and Public Distribution, Government of India said that a synergy between various stakeholders and ministries is required for proper implementation of the agricultural ordinances.

She also highlighted the importance of warehousing, said that creation of small warehouses at the farmgate itself could save a farmer from distress sale of his produce and also assist in providing financial assistance to the farmers, by making it mandatory for the primary agricultural cooperative societies to register their warehouses with the WDRA (Warehouse Development Regulatory Authority).

However, Pravesh Sharma, Advisor, FICCI & Co-founder & CEO, Kamatan Farm Tech Pvt. Ltd, said “The present set of agriculture reforms are of course welcome, but they should be seen as the starting point and not the destination of the journey. Much needs to be done to address bottlenecks in factor markets such as land and capital, technology and infrastructure upgradation before Indian agriculture can become globally competitive, ecologically sustainable and socially inclusive.”