Andhra Pradesh government forms committee to attract investments, tech into farming sector

Vijayawada: To encourage farmers to shift from a production-centric approach to a demand-driven model, the state govt has constituted a high-level committee, which will look into attracting private investments and technologies into the farm sector to ensure better revenues for farmers. The committee — Public Private Partnership for Agriculture Value Chain Development (PPPAVCD) — will be headed by the special chief secretary (agriculture) with the agriculture dept director, senior officials, and representatives from agriculture and horticulture universities as its members. "Value chain development is crucial to ensure more and better revenues for farmers. The govt wants to rope in private players to ensure that farm produce is value added to bring more income to farmers," said special chief secretary Budithi Rajasekhar, adding that the committee will also oversee the deployment of newer technologies and ensure better access to markets for farmers. The govt has also decided to leverage the capabilities of the private sector and non-government entities to manage the ongoing govt schemes as implementing agencies. "Mitigating production and price risks in agriculture and agriculture allied sectors are crucial to help farmers. The govt has set its focus not only on enhancement of production but productivity. We want to improve nutritional security, especially in crops such as pulses, oilseeds, millets, and horticulture crops," said Rajasekhar. The govt is of the view entry of private players as implementation agencies will create employment opportunities for skilled and unskilled persons, especially unemployed youth. Profitability of farmers will increase multifold only when they focus on improvement of value addition, reduce wastage and bring in efficiency in the value chain to increase profitability. The high-level committee will devise new methods to help farmers on these issues. The govt has also issued detailed guidelines for award of work to private agencies. The nodal department will invite proposals from entities interested in undertaking the project and shortlist them based on their experience in any aspect of the value chain associated with the crop. The implementing agencies can also submit their proposal directly to the nodal department/ PPPAVCD cell. Implementing agencies shall include farmers' organisations, cooperatives/societies, partnership firms, proprietorship firms, companies, state agriculture and marketing boards and federations, and other public sector entities.