Accelerating pace of diversification in Punjab

Chandigarh, July 22, 2022 : In order to make the agricultural and allied sectors economically viable for farmers, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government envisioned its meticulously contemplated idea to create a value chains for Agriculture and Horticulture sectors to double the income of farmers by introducing new technologies. 
 
Food Processing & Horticulture Minister Fauja Singh Sarari stated this in the presence of luminaries of this vast field at Agriculture Infrastructure Fund Related Awareness, Issues and Challenges Conference organized by Department of Horticulture here at CII, Sector 31.
 
The state government is committed to remove bottlenecks and find ways forward to address challenges faced by the agri sector to accomplish the farmer’s income enhancing target. Highlighting the various steps taken by the government to remove the logjam in these sectors, the cabinet minister informed that the process to chalk out comprehensive plan is underway as these areas have the immense potential to harness the demands of foreign shores
 
During his inaugural address, Amit Thapar, Chairman, CII Punjab & President, Ganga Acrowools Limited said, “There is immense scope for knowledge-dissemination on prevailing market trends, technology, and good agricultural practices at all levels and therefore we see that all stakeholders are somehow struck in the vicious loop of low value. The way forward is to further scale up AIF initiative with more support coming in from Government, which can help in further expanding the scope of this scheme.”
 
“Schemes like AIF are the need of the hour in Punjab as our farmers seek to Diversify from low value staples to produce crops which has more scope for value addition, which can fetch them better remunerations, do not deplete our water tables and their cultivation practices are environment friendly,” added Dr PJ Singh, Vice-Chairman, CII Punjab & Managing Director, Tynor Orthotics Limited.
 
The conference, which aimed at creating awareness about the provisions of the scheme and have a dialogue among the stakeholders on how Punjab’s Farming as well as Agro Processing community can work together and collaborate to make Punjab’s Agri sector both remunerative as well as competitive on the global map, has many informative sessions.
 
Inaugural session began with the keynotes of stakeholders from Government & Non-Government sector, including industry & private sector players. Eminent speakers put forward the current status of Agri infrastructure and shared vision for state of Punjab and discussed infrastructural requirements across Agricultural & Horticultural value chains in Punjab. Senior leadership from Government & Private sector deliberated to reduce bottlenecks and find ways to address challenges faced by the sector in Punjab during opening session, while stakeholder interventions & challenges focussed on building deep understanding on the design, structure & implementation mechanism of AIF scheme was discussed during second session.
 
In third session, a representation of a typical Value Chain (like academia for research & extension, private sector to understand and share about market requirements, FPO (Farmer Producer Organization) representatives, startups with Government intervention were discussed.