CROP holiday announced by farmers in some parts of Andhra Pradesh is a big

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concern for industry. This may have multiple ramifications and will add to the plethora of conflicts plaguing food productivity, according to ITC agri-business chief executive officer S Sivakumar.

Referring to the situation in Andhra Pradesh, he said that some farmers have declared crop holiday as the cropping was becoming non-remunerative. At the same time, the consumers too were complaining of high prices.

“Such kind of conflicts should be addressed,“ he said at a press conference addressed to announce Food 360 degree, an international conference on Agri-Business and Food Processing Industry that will be organised by industry body FICCI in Hyderabad in November.

Raising the productivity and filling the supply chain missing links were needed to make agriculture, which contributes 22 per cent of India's gross domestic product apart from providing employment to more than two-thirds of the country's population, remunerative to farmers and economical to consumers, he said.

About 40 per cent of the agricultural produce is wasted due to lack of processing facilities, said Sivakumar. The sector is estimated to be Rs 3,50,000 crore with export accounting only for Rs 60,000 crore.

CR Biswal, industries and commerce department principal secretary, said the 12th plan is focused on improving the productivity of agri-processing sector.