Tomar sees PPP model ideal for farmers
Large scale Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects will be leveraging the private sector investments and bring convergence of government schemes and subsidies in the agriculture sector.
This was announced after the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar emphasized the need to strengthen the agriculture sector as it will help in strengthening other sectors as well.
He further stated that PPP model can be the ideal model for growth in Agriculture sector and PPP projects must focus on benefitting the farmers through enhancement of their income.
Manoj Ahuja, Secretary (Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare) stated that government should play a catalytic role in facilitating investments in the Agriculture sector.
Private sector and NGOs should come together and partner with government on projects in Agriculture which will have a multiplier effect, he added.
Shubrakant Panda, Senior Vice President, FICCI, expressed confidence that the Project Management Unit (PMU) initiative for PPP in Agriculture launched on 8 Sept 2022 will accelerate the initiative.
Agriculture stakeholders believe that investments and increasing gross capital formation in agriculture are key to modernizing the sector.
Combining public investments, in the form of various central government and state government initiatives in agriculture along with the private sector investment, can be a force multiplier for the sector.
The government is keen to incentivize PPP initiatives in the agriculture sector to improve yields, reduce losses and enhance farmer incomes.
PPP initiatives will crowd in private capital in agriculture, leverage public investment and align the central and state governments, the private sector, and farmers in a shared vision of dynamic and value-added growth in the sector.
PPP initiatives will also lead to the convergence of various schemes to benefit farmers and improve their impact.
The primary objective of this PPP initiative is to enhance the income of small farmers by creating additional value, from provisioning of quality inputs, technology extension to market linkages and value addition.
PPP initiatives are also expected to lead to modernizing agriculture practices, building climate resilience among farmers, developing agriculture and rural infrastructure, and increasing agricultural exports.
A particular objective is to assist the States to unlock the full potential of their respective agro-climatic regions, and wide variety of agri-produce and help producers to integrate better with domestic and export markets.
Against this backdrop, the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and FICCI have announced a joint initiative to develop Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives in agriculture.
The role of FICCI in this partnership would be:
To reach out to the private sector and facilitate submission of proposals for PPP projects in the agriculture sector
To identify the government schemes which could be directly or indirectly leveraged by the private sector
To help the private sector design the PPP agriculture project proposals as per the guidelines and the schemes available for a particular value chain
To monitor the private sector and PPP investments in agriculture and consolidate the total investments in the agriculture sector
The role of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in this partnership would be:
To inform the state governments about this partnership and the creation of PMU
To coordinate with the state governments for getting the proposals approved
To formulate policies which will accelerate PPPs in the agriculture sector.
FICCI will coordinate with the Department of Agriculture and State Governments on the one hand and private sector companies on the other to realize the goals of the initiative.
The PPP initiative will be reviewed on a regular basis jointly by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and FICCI and necessary course correction undertaken as and when required, said FICCI in a statement. fiinews.com
