Ruchi Soya to invest Rs 500 cr in Maharashtra in food processing

Leading edible oil manufacturer Ruchi Soya Industries has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Maharashtra for setting up of entire value chains for soya, tomato and other agri produce at an investment of Rs 500 crore.

The company plans to lay special emphasis towards farmers of the drought-prone regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada. The proposed investment of Rs 500 crore will be spread over three years.

“Our initiative plans to focus primarily in drought-prone areas across the state. This is a small beginning and we expect to contribute further through similar partnerships,” said Dinesh Shahra, founder and managing director of Ruchi Soya Industries.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ruchi Soya will create an entire value chain for farmers that will see end to end activities for the farming community. The company will extend its services to soya and tomato farmers in the state and help them undertake pre-harvest activities like providing high quality seeds, pesticides and insecticides to farmers. The company aims to reach out to over 200,000 tomato farmers through this initiative.

In the post-harvest stage, besides procuring the produce, the company will also build agri-infrastructure to help the farmer store his produce (cold as well as dry storage space). It will also support the farmer with renewable energy solutions like rooftop solar power generation, and advanced biomass gasification-based trigeneration.

“The deal is a part of the state government’s efforts to scale up the public private partnership for integrated agriculture development (PPP-IAD) initiative in the next five years. The company will work closely with the state government in setting up value chain development. This agreement will also help in utilising best agricultural practices to increase productivity,” said Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Ruchi Soya is already operating two soya seed crushing facilities at Nagpur and Washim. This initiative will reach out to over 1.5 lakh soya farmers across 10 locations in the two regions.