Calcutta, June 11: Keen to showcase Bengal as an agro-business destination, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government has decided to open the doors of its farms at nearly 200 research facilities to private investors.
The government facilities include four commodity research centres, four zonal research centres and 50 sub-divisional centres that sprawl over around 4,000 acres across the state. Most of these farms now produce seeds for farmers? use.
The government has already agreed ?in principle? to lease the land of its dairy farm at Haringhata in Nadia to a milk products unit of the Indonesia-based Salim Group.
?We are looking for public-private partnerships to make the state-owned farms nerve-centres of new market-oriented activities in agriculture and allied sectors,? agriculture secretary Atanu Purakayastha said.
?Sharing with the private companies will also help us generate revenue as most of the farms are under-utilised,?? he added.
Although Purakayastha is yet to receive any concrete proposal from private companies, officials in the chief minister?s secretariat said the move is aimed to facilitate primarily Reliance?s Rs 2,000 crore retail outlet network.
In their initial presentation to a group of secretaries, the company?s officials had outlined a multi-tier operation. The approach included training for farmers in new market-friendly methods in ?demonstration farms? and supply of agricultural inputs and credit facilities through 80 rural business hubs.
Reliance will ?buy back? the produce from farmers who would be bound to sell by a contract. Processed, preserved and packaged, the produce will make it to 60 super or hyper-markets across the state. The government will allow the setting up of the demonstration farms in its own facilities, under lease or some other arrangement, said Dipankar Mukherjee, the principal secretary to the chief minister.
Reliance head Mukesh Ambani and his partner in the project, Bengal Ambuja chief Harsh Neotia, are likely to visit Writers? Buildings next week to discuss this project and a new special economic zone.
Echoing the ?old-school approach? ? state-run farms are not meant for profit-making ? some agriculture department officials aired apprehension over sharing resources with private companies. But the department?s dalliance with private companies is on course.
?We helped potato-growers in Hooghly to produce dry potatoes with more fibre after the Frieto-lay, the Pepsi group subsidiary, asked for that variety for their chips,? agriculture director Dhabaleswar Konar said.