Patna: At a time when Bihar government has rolled out its third agricultural roadmap with an emphasis on enhancing farmers' income, the state has received an offer from Kuwait to export its fruits and vegetables to West Asia.

Arshad Mohsin of Vegetables and Fruits Importers' Federation of the Kuwait government recently sent a letter to Bihar agriculture minister evincing interest in importing fruits and vegetables from the state.

"We are in the knowledge of the agriculture roadmap and the green revolution in Bihar inaugurated by the honourable President of India. Keeping your initiative in mind, we would like you to share with us the possibility of direct export of your vegetable produce to the Middle East market through us," read the letter, which concluded with the following sentence: "We have a gigantic consumer market and importing organic and other vegetables from different countries."

Bihar had rolled out its third agricultural roadmap in November last year and President Ram Nath Kovind had unveiled the document which aims to pump in Rs 1.54 lakh crore in agriculture and allied sectors in five years.

Confirming receipt of the letter from Kuwait, Bihar agriculture minister Prem Kumar on Thursday said: "I have asked department officials to look into the feasibility of accepting this offer and also work out details of the mechanism through which the vegetable and fruit growers of the state could benefit from offer."

The minister said several steps were being taken to improve the production of fruits and vegetables and Bihar had also embarked on an ambitious path to develop organic corridors in the districts located along both banks of the Ganga.

Prem said the department officials had also been asked to assess the infrastructure needed to develop a chain using which vegetables and fruits will have to be supplied if the offer from Kuwait is accepted.

Bihar produced 166 lakh metric tonnes of vegetables and 42.3 lakh metric tonnes of fruits in 2016-17.

The state aims to hike the production level of fruits to 60 lakh metric tonnes and that of vegetables to 252.8 lakh metric tonnes by 2021-22, the final year of the third agricultural roadmap.

Around one fourth (25 to 30 per cent) of the produce gets damaged in Bihar from time of their production to marketing owing to lack of sufficient infrastructure and lack of processing units in the state.