Bhopal: At its day long summit on "Food Processing Investment Summit: Market Development & Business Opportunities" to be held tomorrow at Bhopal, apex industry body ASSOCHAM will explore the possibilities to enhance Madhya Pradesh’s contribution in India’s Rs 3.4 lakh crore worth food processing sector to about 12 per cent from the current level of about eight per cent amounting to over Rs 27,000 crore.

“Over 300 delegates including entrepreneurs, farmers and agri experts are likely to participate in the conference which will be inaugurated by Mr Ram Naresh Yadav, governor, Madhya Pradesh along with Mr Kailash Vijayvargiya, state minister for Commerce and Industries,” said Mr D.S. Rawat, national secretary general of The Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

“Madhya Pradesh has a huge potential to be India’s food processing hub due to easy raw material availability, good transportation linkages but unfortunately the infrastructural bottlenecks are preventing the investors from investing in the sector, thus, there is a grave need to introduce new and affordable technologies, provide uninterrupted power supply to attract more inflows in food processing,” said Mr Rawat.

ASSOCHAM has vowed to initiate entrepreneurship development programmes and training sessions in Madhya Pradesh to help the rural folk, emerging entrepreneurs to familiarise with modern agricultural practices to increase their produce through low cost technologies and get a remunerative price for the same.

“We have also suggested the state government to set up food processing clusters at Indore, Sehore, Chindwara and Shivpuri by forging a partnership between the industry and the government to help the state emerge as a food processing hub in India,” said Mr Rawat.

With about 75 per cent of the state’s economy engaged in agricultural and allied activities and almost half of total land area being cultivable, Madhya Pradesh is blessed with a lucrative combination of soil, rainfall, favorable temperature and the overall environment.

The state must leverage in the production of other vegetables and fruits apart from further improving productivity in existing crops. State being the lowest user of fertilizers per acre, there is a vast scope for improving land yield by using high breed seeds and implementing modern techniques of farming.

There is a huge scope for investment in post harvest processing including – post harvest material harvesting, treatment, warehousing, cold storage, handling biomass, waxing centres etc. Besides, there are ample of investment opportunities in crop processing infrastructure like laboratory infrastructure, co-packaging stations and processing for value addition.

Impetus should also be given to development of each stage in value chain in the form of development of agro-export zones.

Apart from this, ASSOCHAM has also recommended the state government to pave the way for enhanced cropping pattern, better irrigation facilities and ensuring the delivery of quality seeds, plant materials through public and private partnerships.

ASSOCHAM has also offered its co-operation to promote organic farming in Madhya Pradesh (MP) which according to a study undertaken by the apex industry body can lead to wealth accumulation of Rs 23,000 crore, generate exports worth Rs 600 crore and create nearly 60 lakh employment opportunities across the state during the course of next five years.

About 20 lakh additional jobs can also be generated if on-farm storing, processing, value addition, packaging and marketing facilities are included, considering organic farms provide more than 30 per cent more jobs per hectare as against non-organic farms.

“Adoption of organic farming will bring down the expenditure on input costs and will fetch premium pricing up to 50 per cent higher than normal price and about 100 per cent in retail market,” according to the ASSOCHAM study titled ‘Madhya Pradesh: Inching towards Organic Farming.’

“Thus, it can increase net per capita income of a farmer in the state by a whopping 250 per cent i.e. from current level of about Rs 4,200 to over Rs 10,600 per month in next five years thereby, arresting the migration of people from Madhya Pradesh to other states in search of jobs.”