India needs to be proactive on agri-sector, suggests Rabobank

India needs to be more proactive with its agricultural sector development and could learn from other agri-economies like Australia, the chief executive of banking firm Rabobank Singapore said here.

"A well-built infrastructure will help to maintain the country's food security robustness," said Marcel van Doremaele, also a Board Member of the Rice Bowl Index (RBI), which assesses food security robustness in Asia.

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He cited Australia as among the leading export-driven agricultural economies with best models of infrastructure, transportation and irrigation systems, and noted that policies and targets laid out by the Indian government are fairly ambitious but not unattainable.

He applauded the target of a 100 per cent electrification of rural areas, improving rural infrastructure, increasing farmer incomes and rural employment, encouraging entrepreneurship, and increasing the number of vulnerable families covered under national health insurance among others.

The intricate balance does not only fall into the hands of the private sector, but the government will have to do its part to ensure that there is a robust infrastructure in place, said van Doremaele in his observation on the Indian agri-sector.

One criticism, though, is that most of the (Indian) government schemes and policies are reactive rather than proactive

"While improving irrigation and increasing credit are very important, the government also needs to be forward-looking and improve efficiencies in a number of agricultural institutions, modernise the sector, and increase access to agricultural expertise and knowledge," he pointed out.

Despite the time they take to yield actual returns, the policies highlighted in the budget are important and will improve the outlook for India's agricultural sector, van Doremaele said.

According to the RBI 2015 assessment, India's overall food security robustness has been on the general upward trend since 2000, showing progress in improving the robustness of the systems that underpin food security in the country.

But the agricultural sector has been India's worst performing sector in the last few years and is in dire need of reform and investment, he said.

The sector had faced difficult monsoons and contracted 0.2 per cent in financial year 2014-15 and grew only 1.2 per cent last year (2015-16), he said, citing local media reports.

source:The Economic Times