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Farmers' body backs Centre's decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail
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Wednesday, 19 September, 2012, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, New Delhi
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fiogf49gjkf0d The Consortium of Indian Farmers' Association (CIFA) has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh thanking him for the Centre's decision to permit 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail.
"We strongly believe that FDI will go a long way in benefiting the agricultural community at large, and at the same time it would fetch a better price for consumers and streamline the 'farm-to-fork' supply chain, thus reducing food wastage," P Chengal Reddy, secretary-general, CIFA, said.
He said the growth of the farm sector was hampered because of the lack of modern technologies, inadequate investments and restricted market prices. Singh spearheaded the liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991 to propel India's tertiary sector to become globally competitive.
"However, to achieve the status of world economic power, the agriculture sector has to be liberalised so that the farming sector becomes globally competitive and India's development is holistic," said Reddy.
He added, "The FDI policy will help curtail wastage, which amounts to about Rs 1 lakh crore every year. As of now, the post-harvest facility of pre-cooling, cold storages, transporting by reefer vehicles is virtually absent."
"Understanding the consumer preference for quality parameters by the farmers and arranging forward and backward linkage by the result is a win-win situation for producers and consumers," Reddy said.
He said, "The FDI, which will enable huge investments and technologies, will help all the five lakh villages have infrastructure, trained manpower and other facilities. This will further enable contract farming, which provides assured price and also price discovery mechanism."
"We fondly hope than the 1,000 varieties of Indian mangoes, litchi, bananas, custard apple, BPT rice, Durram wheat will find market throughout the world. And while we appreciate your farm sector liberalisation policies, we request that similar initiatives be taken in sugar, cotton, rice and wheat," he concluded.
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