Value addition and Value creation need of the hour to make agriculture a profitable venture: Fauja Singh Sarari

Chandigarh, November 7, 2022:  The 15th edition of CII Agro Tech India came to a conclusion on Monday. The key message from the valedictory session of the four-day Premier Agri and Food Technology Fair was that farming is a tradition, and passion for people in Punjab. The power of research also needs to be given its due importance.

The chief guest of the session in his address Fauja Singh Sarari, Minister for Food Processing & Horticulture, said, “The Government of Punjab led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has taken a number of initiatives to give a major boost to agriculture through policy reforms as well as innovation and technological application at the grassroot level.

While congratulating CII on successful hosting of Agro Tech India 2022, Sarari said that Farmers and industry have been brought on one platform and it has provided and opened doors for many opportunities. He underlined the relative importance of agriculture and industry as the latter helps in value creation as well as value addition which prove to be mutually beneficial both for the farmers and industrialists.

He stated that Punjab plays a major role in nation's food security by contributing 11.78 % in rice production and 17.57% in wheat production, therefore Punjab's farmers need to be appropriately compensated for their hard work.

A major aim of Agro Tech India is to create awareness on agriculture schemes of the government such as AIF (Agriculture Infrastructure Fund), Punjab has been marching ahead in implementation of this scheme which has attracted investment to the tune of 1800 crore rupees till October 2022”    

Talking about the initiative of the Punjab government he disclosed that Punjab is encouraging Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR) with incentive which is helpful in saving of 20 % water as compared to traditional method.

CII has acted as the funnel for taking relevant information to the farmer. We need to shun the culture of educated youth wanting only white-collar jobs. The youth need to learn how to be job creators as well.”

At this stage, the dates of CII Agro Tech Indi 2024 were also announced from November 16-19, 2024.

Proposing the vote of thanks, Rajiv Kaila, Chairman, CII Chandigarh (UT) and Director, marketing, Kaila Engineering Pvt Ltd and Director Horticulture Punjab, Shailender Kaur thanked all Ministries, stakeholders, the host states OF Punjab and Haryana as well as the partner state – the UT of Jammu & Kashmir.