Karnataka's agri push

Karnataka’s effort to revitalize its agricultural sector with money and technology from business has borne fruit. On the first day of the Global Agri-business and Food Processing Summit 2011, chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda announced that MoUs for around 30 investment proposals worth over Rs 50,000 crore have been signed. The event, the first such in Karnataka – indeed, the first in the country – has brought investment commitments into agri-business projects, post-harvest infrastructure, agri-industrial clusters, food processing and an agri corridor of excellence. The biggest commitments came from SREI Infrastructure Finance (Rs 15,000 crore), Wadhawan Mega Infrastructure (Rs 10,000 crore), Welspun Infratech (Rs 5,000 crore), and Marg (Rs 4,000 crore). Anand Mahindra, vicechairman and MD of Mahindra & Mahindra, said the event showed that Karnataka is seeing a quiet revolution. “The business opportunities are tremendous as the Karnataka government is working in a spirit of collaboration and a positive mindset of partnering the private sector.” However, farmers — who Gowda called the centre point of the initiative — appeared unconvinced about the benefits of the programme. Several farmer groups protested outside the venue of the summit, decrying what they called corporatization of agriculture. They said farmers’ livelihoods are being sacrificed for the benefit of corporates. A number of farmers were taken into preventive custody and later released.