Bhubaneswar, Aug. 31: A senior World Bank official today suggested the state administration to transform its bumper production base to entrepreneurship by setting up of more incubation centres and food processing clusters.

Delivering the 13th lecture of the Odisha Knowledge Hub lecture series at the state secretariat, Paramesh Saha, the global lead for rural livelihoods and agricultural jobs at World Bank, said: 'Odisha is now among the top 10 states in producing agricultural produces, such as cereals, fruits and vegetables. It has been able to build a bumper production base because of a series of promotional interventions over the years. Now, it should transform the bumper production base into entrepreneurship.'

Stating that around 21 per cent of jobs across the world were created by the food and agri-processing sectors, Saha cited the examples of South Asian countries, Europe, France, Thailand and the Netherlands, where more jobs were created by transforming the bumper production to agricultural entrepreneurship in agri-processing and food production.

'No country can create more jobs without promoting and transforming its agricultural base. Now that Odisha has set a high production base, it can afford to broaden its entrepreneurship base,' he said.

Development commissioner R. Balakrishnan said the state would engage more in creating incubation facilities in rural parts with the help of World Bank.