The State Government would ink as many as nine MoUs with investors functional in other States in the areas like food processing, related skill development, entrepreneurship development and mandi modernisation. The agreements would channelise investment worth crores of rupees in Jharkhand.
“We have got host of proposals and are expecting to sign around nine MoUs during the two day ‘Advantage Jharkhand’ summit starting from April 23. We have identified huge scope not only in food processing but also locals honed with new sets of skills, access to local level investors and entrepreneurs and also modernisation of local markets and mandis operating in Jharkhand,” said Industry Secretary Himani Pandey addressing a press conference on Tuesday in the run-up of the summit.
Companies such as ‘ll logistics’ in logistic park and cold chain sector, ‘NCDEX’ in the field of mandi modernization and market analysis, ‘Expert Weather’ for weather rick mitigation and agro-meteorological technology intervention, Bridge Point Networks, Triveni Food Park, Cresa International for food and vegetable processing, Crystal Group for integrated cold chain, Kwality Dairy, Kansal Agro in organic eggs and Mother Dairy- Safal are among the others that would be signing the agreements with the State Government.
This apart, delegates from top agri-business companies like Reliance Dairy, Mother Dairy, DS Group, NCDEX-NSPOT, McDonald and Pelz, Tinplate Company, Vikas Bharati, Jain Irrigation, Crytal Group, Navjyoti Commodities, Gopaljee Dairy are participating in the convention. National and State agencies such as NHB, APEDA, MPEDA, Spices Board, Milkfed, ASCI, NMRC, SFAC, IIGR, RIICO and NDDB would also help to meet the goals set for the State which is considered rich in producing fresh fruits and vegetables, organic products and also minor forest produces.
“large amount of raw food materials like amla, tamarind, chiraungi, turmeric etc are sent to all over the country without any value addition. We have been a sourcing destination rather than processing destination.
The trend has to be reversed so that job creating can be done. As we are lacking skill in operating machinery and also in availability of machines, the summit can be a fulfilling opportunity to bridge the gap existing in the sector,” added the Secretary.
In the summit nine States—West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh—have also agreed to participate and display their stalls. Besides experts from the field, farmers of Jharkhand have also been invited to attend the summit.
“The main objectives of the summit are to profile Jharkhand on the food processing map of the country, reduce wastage of produces, sensitise potential investors to the opportunities available, identify key investment opportunities and facilitation of the investment through one to one meeting. Another important thing would be detailed deliberations on policy changes in order to make it more inclusive,” said Pandey.