Well harvest Agri Meet crop

BANGALORE: The government will take all steps to ensure fructification of commitment made on investments at the country’s first ever two-day Global Agri-Business and Food Processing Summit-2011, which concluded with a promise of over Rs 1,10,000 crore investments in the area of agriculture and allied segments.At the closing ceremony on Friday, Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said the government would establish a three-tier monitoring system for preparing an action plan and for executing the investment project proposals worth over Rs 1,10,000 crore,  including Rs 50,000 financial support promised by nationalised banks.He said that during the two-day meet, 42 MoUs have been signed with 41 firms for investments of Rs 60,531.50 crore in agribusiness, food processing, agri-infrastructure and horticulture and sericulture.As the lead financier, State Bank of India (SBI) signed an agreement with the state government for funding Rs 40,000 crore for agri-business projects while Bank of India signed the pact for lending Rs 10,000 crore.Gowda said the Karnataka State Agricultural Produce Processing and Export Corporation (KAPPEC) in consultation with Mahindra Consulting Engineers Ltd will prepare an action plan in the next 52 weeks, while a high-level panel headed by Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner of the government will review the progress of the projects every 15 days. He said a Cabinet sub-committee headed by him would review the progress of the implementation of the projects once in three months.Claiming that the summit was a big success, Gowda said 2,000 national and international delegations participated in the meet, which included two days of deliberations and debates with a focus on agriculture, infrastructure sector, horticulture, fisheries, sericulture, animal husbandry, bee keeping and food processing.He said the main thrust area of the summit was aimed at providing effective linkages and upgraded technology to help farmers increase production.