Comments
Agriculture and allied businesses are increasingly gaining importance as a serious business activity among the global industrial giants.
At a two-day International Conference on Agri-business in Emerging Economies at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), experts revealed that agriculture has been the oldest endeavour in the world and India has an advantage in the sector.
Speaking at the inaugural session, Prof S P Raj, professor of marketing at Syracuse University, said, “Agri-business contributes a large proportion to the world economy. Such is its importance that 17 global businesses have now diversified into agribusiness.''
In the context of emerging economies, he said: “The main challenge is to improve efficiency."
The two-day international conference, organised in collaboration with Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management and the Journal of Agri-business in Developing and Emerging Economies (JADEE), kicked off on Wednesday, January 6, 2016.
Aimed at sharing research and expertise on agribusiness in developing and emerging economies, the conference was attended by delegates and guests from across the country and also from countries, including the US, Uganda, Belgium, and Sri Lanka.
R S Sodhi, MD, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), stated that Indian dairy sector had gone from being market stagnant in the 1970s to becoming the largest milk producer of the world… from 20 tonnes we are now up to 150 tonnes.
"When goods get consumed locally, it is good for agribusiness. It is important to protect small farmers in the context of emerging economies since inputs and outputs occur on a smaller scale. We are not into mass production but production by the masses," Sodhi said.
Member of Parliament from Kheda seat Devusinh Chauhan expressed the need to provide better prices for farm produce to the growers. "For 10,000 years, farmers have provided food for mankind and being their representative, I demand higher prices for agricultural products.”
Delegates from YES Bank's International Agribusiness vertical, besides other delegates, were present at the first day of the conference.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.