Shivraj pitches for 'Make in Madhya Pradesh'

Says state can't lose more time in a gradual shift to industry for livelihood, from agriculture

A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to arrive here, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took a leaf from the former’s book to exhort industry to make Madhya Pradesh a manufacturing hub.

He wanted people, he said, to gradually shift to industries from the farm sector, even as agricultural output in the state grew a record 25 per cent in 2013-14.

Chouhan launched a ‘Make in Madhya Pradesh’ campaign at the Global Investors Summit here, after Modi made a similar appeal at the national level 10 days earlier. The CM said the state’s 70 million population could not depend on only agriculture.

“Agricultural surpluses should be used for value addition and MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) and cottage industries can play a greater role in this endeavour of mine. I want a wide network of MSMEs and cottage industries,” he said.

MP has 500,000 MSMEs, whose contribution to the state's gross domestic product (GDP) is a little more than nine per cent.

Agriculture did very well in the past three years. Output grew 18.6 per cent in 2011-12, by 19.2 per cent in 2012-13 and 25 per cent in 2013-14 — the corresponding national average was five per cent, 1.4 per cent and 4.7 per cent, respectively. Even so, the contribution of agriculture to state GDP remained stagnant at 20-23 per cent. It’s share was eight per cent in India’s agriculture in 2012-13.

The state is ranked second highest in foodgrain production, bettered only by Uttar Pradesh. It is also the country's soya bowl. It is now among the top wheat growing states, with 17.2 million tonnes of production last year, despite spells of natural calamities. Similarly, rice and pulses production has attracted many processing companies to the state.

China, South Korea and Japan, said Chouhan, “have only three per cent of the population dependent upon agriculture. If we have to have a developed state, we need a wide network of industries, particularly MSMEs.”

He also appealed to industrialists to train youths to be entrepreneurs. “Why should our young population be a job seeker?” he asked. They should, instead, be employers, he said. Only possible if they learn to add value at the local level to the various farm commodities they produce.

In this regard, he stressed food processing, horticulture and floriculture. “We have already mapped MP to see which commodity is in surplus. Our idea is to create cold chains and storage capacities, adding value at the local level.”

“Various companies procure commodities such as wheat from other countries, though we grow fine varieties,” said Anurag Shrivastava, commissioner for horticulture.