Gujaratstartups, VADODARA: A seminar to educate the state's farmers on Global Good Agricultural Practices European retailers party standards (EUREPGAP) will be held at the campus of BA College of Agriculture in Anand Agriculture University (AAU) on Thursday.

Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce (FICCI), which has organised the seminar, has selected 11 states including Gujarat for the national-level project aimed at helping farmers to improve the agricultural output in order to increase exports to developed nations. This seminar is a curtain raiser to the project that will commence in the state soon.

In Gujarat, FICCI has selected AAU and will train the academic staff in EUREPGAP norms. The staff members will, in turn, train the farmers in the state on European standards. "We undertook a pilot project on GAP based on European standards with the view to promote them among the farming community in India. It was also an effort to help farmers in improving their quality of life by adopting the right methods. The study brought in focus Maharashtra as one of the states that could export Europe GAP certified Alphonso," said E N Sundar, technical director of FICCI's quality forum. Sundar will be talking about the project at the seminar to be attended by 50 farmers.

Sundar also shared that India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, but its export is just one per cent compared to 18 to 30 per cent in Malaysia, Thailand and other far eastern countries.

"The main reason is that consumers in European and other developed countries do not have confidence in the safety regulations followed in our agricultural produce. This is due to unscientific and irresponsible manner of using agricultural chemicals, particularly pesticides. Although the practises on agriculture remained in this country for many centuries, we have remained traditional by not adopting the modern techniques in the scientific manner," added Sundar.

Impressed by FICCI's pilot project, Norwegian government awarded a national project covering 11 important states of the country. "FICCI will be providing awareness, training and consultancy facilities to the farmers without charging a penny from them except for certification fee. The idea is to help farmers to earn dollars and euros through exports," Sundar said.

Source: Times of India