Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the Uttar Pradesh government was working to ensure global branding of Kala Namak variety of rice on the lines of Basmati rice.
Yogi said that a project for promoting Kala Namak rice had been prepared in association with the International Rice Research Institute at Varanasi, Indian Agriculture Research Institute and Acharya Narendra Dev Agriculture University of Faizabad.
Addressing farmers and industrialists virtually at the CII Agro & Food Tech, 2020 on the Indian Agriculture Week on Friday, the chief minister said that Kala Namak rice had already been included in the One District, One Product scheme for Siddharthnagar. Besides, he said, it had got a GI (geographical indication) tagging in 11 districts of eastern UP.
Yogi pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic had affected almost every sector contributing to the economy except agriculture, which had seen a significant growth and contributed to the state as well national GDP.
The chief minister that the state government had accorded top priority to the development of farm sector and the welfare of farmers.
He said that with the objective of farmers’’ well-being, all sugar mills of the state had continued normal cane crushing operations during the lockdown from March 25 to mid-May.
Yogi said that 92 percent of the farmers in the state were marginal and there was a need to organise the sector to strengthen them financially.
He said that for achieving this, the government had already announced a policy for FPOs (farmers producers organisation) and the process of constituting the FPOs at block level was underway.
Yogi congratulated the CII for putting together this initiative and said that he was confident that a large number of farmers would be able to benefit from it.
He also urged entrepreneurs in the sector to come forward and set up processing units in UP which was naturally so endowed.
Chairman, CII Agro & Food Tech 2020 & Chairman and Managing Director, DCM Shriram Ltd, Ajay Shriram noted that the participation of the country’s largest agricultural state in the summit was encouraging.
Shriram said that the agenda of One Nation, One Market was the need of the hour and it would give growers the freedom to sell their produce as per their will.
He remarked that technology coupled with farming techniques would pave the way forward for the growth of the agriculture sector.
Nikhil Sawhney, Chairman, CII Northern Region and Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Triveni Turbines Ltd, said that the various recent policy reforms undertaken by the government would give the much needed impetus to the micro, small and medium enterprises sector and entrepreneurs in the state. He also pointed out that the agricultural sector, industry and education collectively needed to grow for the overall development of the state. “Uttar Pradesh is the largest agricultural and dairy producer hence it is a crucial market for food processing as well,” he added.
Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry, congratulated the government for its good governance and the trust it had built.
“The improved ranking in the ease of doing business parameters have further infused confidence amongst business owners to look at UP for their investments,” he said.
He said the CII had developed a business service unit specifically for FPOs to equip them with market linkage and it aimed to connect 25,000 farmers by 2025.