Odisha invites investors to explore opportunities in agriculture marketing

Gurugram: In the run-up to the Make in Odisha Conclave (MIO) 2018, the Odisha Government on Wednesday organized a consultative workshop on agriculture marketing at Gurugram.

The programme was organised in association with industries partner Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

The workshop was attended by over 50 investors based in Delhi-NCR who expressed their interest to explore investment opportunities in Odisha’s agriculture marketing sector.

These included leading names like Maersk, Bayer, Mother Dairy, StarAgri, among others.

The workshop was a curtain raiser event for the session on Agriculture Marketing during MIO. The objective was to acquaint the participants in this sector, with the policy & regulatory environment and investment opportunities in the agriculture marketing sector in Odisha.

The workshop provided a platform to all the stakeholder groups in agribusiness and allied sectors for sharing of knowledge and focused discussion with officials of Government of Odisha.

Speaking at the workshop, Cooperation Minister Surjya Narayan Patra said, “Odisha has already attained self-sufficiency in food production. Over the last few years, the State has experienced success in terms of crop area, production, productivity, food security, irrigation, leading to a rise in farmers’ income. The State bagged national “Krishi Karman Award” four times consecutively between 2010-11 and 2014-15. It is also the seventh largest vegetable producing state in the country.”

In order to realize the goal of enhancing farmers’ income further in a sustainable manner, the Odisha government is seeking private investments across a range of areas under agriculture marketing from quality infrastructure for storage, grading, sorting, packaging and trading of agricultural produce to providing ease of trade between sellers and buyers respectively.

The other focus areas include enabling hassle-free IT-based interface with Governmental setups for compliances and offering modern features such as electronic trading platforms, warehousing receipts and quality assaying facilities.