Buoyed by the success of the first edition held last year, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Odisha State Council organised the second FARM2FORK 2015- Seminar-cum-Exposition on Food Processing & Agribusiness Potential of Odisha here on Friday in association with the State Department of MSME.
Speaking at the inaugural session Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati said the contribution of agriculture to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is declining at a much faster rate than the percentage of population earning their livelihood from agriculture.
He reiterated the well-known fact that while the food price is steadily going up, the farmers are not getting the entire benefit.
Pati blamed the different elements of the channel that carries the agricultural products from producer to consumer, poor farm productivity, lopsided use of nutrients, lack of efforts to minimise wastage and insufficient transfer of knowledge from lab to land as some of the factors contributing to the sad state of affairs that has created distress among the farmers.
State Principal Secretary of Agriculture Rajesh Verma and MSME Secretary Panchanan Dash also spoke on the theme with specific emphasis on the initiatives of their respective departments.
In his opening remarks, Chairman of CII Odisha State Council DS Ravindra Raju discussed the issues relating to the 6.25 million hectares of cultivable land, 10 diverse agro-climatic zones and socioeconomic factors which represent the opportunities available and the constraints in exploiting them for the benefit of all stakeholders.
The inaugural session was followed by a technical session that focused on national agro and food processing companies which would like to come to Odisha for investment, the opportunities in Odisha and the policies for MSMEs in the agro/food processing sector. The next technical session focused on the food and agribusiness support infrastructures which included long and fragmented supply chain, cold storage and warehousing facilities, road, and rail and port infrastructure.