Govt weighs farming in foreign land

NEW DELHI: The Centre is considering a proposal to help local industry start farming activities, particularly of pulses and oilseeds, in other countries and bring the produce back home for meeting the demand-supply gap.

The committee of secretaries in a meeting in September 2007 had decided to explore the possibility of cultivation of pulses and oilseeds in countries such as Myanmar. It had also asked the commerce and food ministries to examine the issue.

Following this decision, food secretary T Nanda Kumar early last week met representatives of the edible oil industry to know their response, official sources said. Consumer affairs secretary Yashwant Bhave is also going to meet the representatives of pulses industry soon, the sources said, adding Mr Bhave had already discussed the issue with the industry once a couple of ago.

"It is at a very initial stage. The meeting (with edible oil industry) was held to know the industry's response to take up contract farming of oil palm in Myanmar," a source said, adding the government's role would only be as a facilitator.

Though the edible oil industry has responded positively to the proposal, it also expressed some reservations on issues such as security, the source said. It was decided that the government would facilitate a visit of industry delegation to Myanmar to help the private players assess the ground situation, the source added.