The Maharashtra government has asked the State Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) to allocate land from its pool ‘on a priority basis’ to farmer producer companies (FPCs) to establish manufacturing or commercial units related to farming.
In this way Maharashtra wants to make agriculture value chain more vigorous and make farmers direct stakeholders in agri-business ventures.
As per the scheme, MIDC will provide land on a priority basis in C and D zones to the FPCs, while the price will be market-linked. In the C zones, farmer producer companies will have to submit a project report envisioning investment of at least Rs 20 crore whereas in D zones, the investment threshold is Rs 10 crore.
Sources said the purpose of the scheme is to encourage investments in backward regions and also endorse agricultural related activities in these regions.
The new scheme, though, fell short of providing free land to establish new mandis, a step which would have balanced the efforts to end the control of the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis.
A FPC delegation under the MAHAFPC had also given a list of recommendations to the Minister for Industry Subhash Desai, a fortnight ago.
MD of MahaFPC, (apex body of FPCs) Yogesh Thorat said “Both the Centre and state governments are promoting FPCs/ FPOs as strategic institutions for improving agro-industrial activities. Hence, there is a need to outline policies for supporting FPCs/ FPOs.”
