MuIurusILru AgrI SecLor

By Editorial Team - on July 14, 2009

Reaching top most position in the country
Maharashtra is India's leading agriculture state. The state has achieved many innovative
agro-industrial ventures, the sugar co-operative and coperatives for cultivating and
marketing, including exports of grapes, mangoes, strawberries etc. Here is a special feature.

Hon.Ashok Chavan, Chief Minister, Maharashtra
Maharashtra Government initiatives are very unique to make agriculture, horticulture, agribusiness,
Food Processing industry highly competitive and successful in the country. Similarly Maharastra
farmers are very enterprising and hard working and make agriculture a viable business.
We all know many success stories of the Maharashtra farmers. (which will be carried in the coming
issues) We have contacted the agriculture department to know more about their new initiatives to
make success of the agrisector in the State. When the agriculture Minister's office is contacted they
were so forthcoming to come out with their various new schemes and strategies.
Here we publish the answers we received from the Minister's Office for our questions on account of
Maharashtra agriculture developments which shows the way to other States .
1.How do you rank Maharashtra agriculture progress with other states?
Maharashtra is richly endowed with outstanding agricultural research and educational institutions
both in the public and private sectors. t has diverse agro climatic and soil conditions.
Maharashtra has always taken an initiative in adopting new technologies.
The farm families are hard working and innovative. Given a proper synergy between technology and
public demand, rapid progress can be made in improving the productivity, profitability, stability and
sustainability of major farming systems of the state, as is evident from Maharashtra's horticultural
revolution.
The perspective plan for further 10 years activities wise is prepared which is as follows :
a) Packhouse - 5,000 Nos.
b) Collection & grading units - 5,000 Nos.
c) Pre-cooling units - 500 Nos.
d) Cold storage - 500 Nos.
e) Refervan - 500 Nos.
f) Apani Mandi - 4,800 Nos.
g) Onion Storage Structures - 75,000 Nos.
(5 MT capacity)
h) Contract Farming Projects - 3,000 Nos.
i) Agro processing units - 10,000 Nos.
nspite of the several constraints , the state has made some achievements to its credit which are as
follows :
An area of 13.66 lakh hectares under horticultural and 4 lakh ha under vegetables
Largest producer of seedless Grapes (78%) banana (75%) Mandarin oranges (75%) Onion (63%).
Tomatoes (42%) of the total production in ndia. Alphanso Mangoes accounts for 90% of ndia's
export in mangoes.
The highest number of poly houses (1271) owned by small farmers for cultivation of flowers.
Leads the sugar industry sector with 200 sanctioned and 150 productive cooperative sugar mills
40% turnover of the seed industry in the country
Strong base of technical manpower in the operational areas of four Agriculture Universities with 56
Agriculture colleges, 82 research institutes & five national level research organizations
More than 60% of the area under drip irrigation, thus stands first in the country
173 Poly clinics being operated in the State

2. What are the major poIicy initiative of your government in agricuIture deveIopment?
The food processing industry requires highly skilled & technical manpower. To compete in export
market the processed product should be of high quality, health safety, free from pesticide residue &
should be accompanied with various testes & certification. For this farmers & extension machinery
needs to be trained. Accordingly Central & State Governments are supporting various training
programmes under NHM & NHB Programmes.
As far as state is concerned Grape farmers have accepted latest technologies like Eurepgap,
Agmark, Bar-coding & Residue Monitoring system etc. For other crops, farmers as well as extension
machinery's various training programs are organized for the period ranging from 1 day to 3 months
duration, depending upon needs of the training. Concept of contract farming & corporate farming is
also in the way of promotion which will also take care of training of latest technologies to be used by
the entrepreneurs involved in the farming system.
Maharashtra's Response to Agriculture Historical Perspective
First State to adopt Dry Land Farming Technology.
Pioneer in Horticulture Development through EGS to promote higher income & more employment
in farming sector
State Seed Corporation First farmers company in seed sector
Pioneers in Co-operative network
Sugar factories, Dairies,Water user association.
Corporate Horticulture Company
Four State Agricultural Universities
Very effective & Research based Farmers Organisations
3. What are the steps promoted to agri industries and agro processing industries outside the
traditionaI sugar cooperative sector?
During last two five year Plans Government of Maharashtra has given emphasis on the development
of horticulture along with Agriculture. All out efforts in this regards have reflected through increase in
area and production. Maharashtra plays a major role in horticulture development under scheme
EGS, which linked horticulture plantation and its production of fruits & vegetable. The export from
Maharashtra for fresh vegetables and fruits to the ndian basket is 30% and that of processed food
products is nearly 50%. With the availability of varied range of agricultural produce, the state
provides great potential for establishment of agri-business. The Government needs to take fiscal
steps, which would be conducive to sustain the investment. With this broad view in mind, state
government proposed to develop infrastructure to speed up agri-business.
The infrastructure would comprise of post-harvest facilities like mass collection centers, sorting
grading, packing houses, store houses, refrigerated vans, precooling, cold storage, establishment of
Gramin nformation Centers for market of higher value, residue testing laboratories for fruits &
vegetables. n the case of agro-processing for foodgrains & oil seeds like dal mill, soyabean
processing & oil processing units etc. at the village level will also be promoted.
We want to develop Maharashtra in agro-processing sector, to top most position in the country
similar to that of horticulture development. We have plan to achieve it by providing basic post
harvest infrastructure facility in coming 10 years.

.What are the achievements/incentives government raised in drawing outside
entrepreneurs/investors in agri industry sector?
Agriculture Export Zone (AEZ) Already the state has stared implementation of Agri Export Zones
(AEZ). The State has announced eight (8) Agri Export Zone for important crops being implemented
through various Agencies in the State. The concept of Agri Export Zones attempts to take
comprehensive look at particulars produce/products located in a continuous area for the purpose of
developing and sourcing the raw material their processing/packing, leading to final export. Promotion
of exports As a leading agricultural State in the country, today the state of Maharashtra has a major
say in country's agriculture sector and continues to play a role in export of agriculture produce and
products from the country. Large portion of all horticulture produce exported from the country are
from Maharashtra.
Similarly the state has major contribution to exports of cashew nut & Mango from the country today
and it has a potential to increase exports of agricultural produce and value added processed foods
from the State. ncentives for export awareness amongst farmers Government of ndia has
sanctioned Agricultural Export Zones (AEZ) for Mango (Alphanso & Kesar), Pomegranate & Onion,
On the same line AEZ for Banana & Oranges are under consideration. t is, therefore necessary to
educate the farmers regarding importance and concept of AEZ and production technologies for
export quality material as well as packaging, processing etc. Pattern of assistance will be Rs.50/-
per farmer per day .This training will be organized in AEZ areas as well as remaining areas as per
requirements.
Agro-Processing ndustry in Maharashtra
Globalization & Technological changes introduced in the last decade or more have changed the
outlook of the food processing industry in the state. Processing of agro-horticultural produce is now-
a-days emerging as one of the basic activity in our economy due to its labour intensiveness &
employment generating potential. Wide availability of varied agri-horticultural produce due to varied
range of climate & soil conditions offers tremendous scope to flourish state's processing industry to
increase the processing & value addition from present 1.5% to reach upto 35% of total produce.
Even today the growth of the processing industry in the state has been guided largely by availability
of infrastructure facilities and convenient markets, besides the ready availability of raw material.
This necessitates integrated efforts to build up sustainable climate & to attract private investments in
this sector.