Better storage facility for food grains, better packaging, presentation and adopting a farmer centric model for development approach would help the country’s rural sector and the economy revive said Dr. Farooq Abdullah,  Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy at a felicitation ceremony for the MPs with a rural touch organised by the PHD Chamber and Krishi Jagran in the capital.

"We need better storage facilities for food grains. We waste grains worth crores of rupees due to lack of proper storage," Dr. Abdullah said.

Dr Abdullah was felicitated along with MPs Ghulam Nabi, Lal Singh  and Shariefud Din Shariq.

“Food Corporation of India has not used available technology to construct multi-storied storage complexes”, said Dr. Abdullah.

He also said that better cold storage facilities and an effective cold storage chain can help farmers sell fruits to far flung areas of the country and thus get better returns.

Dr. Abdullah said that the government was thinking of providing free seeds and fertilizers to farmers to help them progress.

“Certain areas need urgent attention like checking the diversion of area under cultivation to urbanization, decreasing yield gap, optimizing water management, improving post harvest processing and marketing and increasing farmers’ access to cultivable land”, said Mr. Salil Bhandari, Vice President, PHD Chamber. 

Mr. N M Kejriwal, Chairman, Agribusiness Committee, PHD Chamber added that in India there exist diverse agro climatic conditions and is therefore advisable that each state should have a separate agriculture plan and crop depending on its agro climatic conditions