February 20, 2019
Bangla Govt to set up Centre of Excellence for agriculture
A Centre of Excellence (COE) in agriculture and horticulture is coming up in Chinsurah, Hooghly. It is a State Government project, in technical collaboration with Israel. The centre will come up by the end of this year.
This was announced by the secretary of the Food Processing Industries and Horticulture Department recently. She also said that modern agriculture is a very technology-intensive activity and so there is a good need for bringing in new techniques and technologies.
While originally the project was meant for potato cultivation, later on it was decided to adopt Israeli technology also for horticulture mechanisation, protected cultivation, nurseries, micro-irrigation, and post-harvest management.
The secretary further said that the government wants to set up three packaging houses in each district under the public-private partnership mode.
The Food Processing Minister, who also participated in the summit, said that the way forward for private investors in agriculture in Bangla is by adopting the participatory farming model, also known as contract farming.
In such a model, while farmers would provide the land and labour, private investors or entrepreneurs would provide the inputs and technology and bear the business risks to reap profit, not only for domestic markets but also for exports. The State Government will play the role of a facilitator.
Facilities like packaging houses, poly houses and subsidies will be provided by the government.
Source: Millennium Post, foodprocessingbazaar.com
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