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Farmers, consumers to benefit from FDI in
retail: Pawar
Tuesday October 09, 2012 07:28:01 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi:
Foreign investment in multi-brand retail was welcome and would
benefit farmers and consumers both, Agriculture Minister Sharad
Pawar said Tuesday.
Farmers would benefit with significant reduction in post harvest
losses and get better prices for their crop, while consumers would
gain from lower prices and higher quality of produce, Pawar said
while addressing the Economic Editors Conference here.
The minister also said that foodgrain production had been
marginally affected by the deficient rainfall this year.
"The total production of foodgrains is estimated to be lower by
1.68 million tonnes than the average production of 118.86 million
tonnes. However, this amounts to a decline of only 1.4 percent
from the average production," Pawar said.
He added that the widespread rains that occurred in
August-September and the late withdrawal of the monsoon were good
for the rabi crop as the moisture content in soil had increased.
India had achieved average growth rate of 3.3 percent in
agriculture during the 11th Plan, which was better than the
earlier times, and aimed to push growth rate to four percent in
the 12th Plan, the minister said.
Pawar also said that India has become the second largest exporter
in the world of agriculture produce - exporting 10 million tonnes
of rice, 2.5 million tonnes of wheat and sugar and 40 lakh bales
of cotton. "India is the second largest exporter of rice after
China."
On the huge quantity of foodgrains that go waste due to
non-availability of proper storage facility, he said the
government has launched a new scheme - Bhandar scheme - in
villages, with an outlay of Rs.750 crore.
"We have also invited the private sector to build godowns, which
the Food Corporation of India will pay for. We have got good
response to the scheme. The godowns will be for 40,000 tonne
storage capacity," he added.
Discussing farmer suicides, Pawar said the numbers have been
decreasing over the years. In Maharashtra, the numbers have come
down from 1,035 in 2006, and this year, there had been 118 cases
so far, he said, adding that the reasons behind the suicides
ranged from poor remuneration prices to crop failure.
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