Trivandrum: With the objective of obtaining the maximum price for Kerala’s agricultural products, finding new ways of storage, processing, value addition and national and international marketing of various agricultural products, the Kerala Agro Business Company (CABCO) was formed on the occasion of the state-level Farmers’ Day celebrations on Chingam One.
Inaugurating the company at a function held at Thiruvananthapuram, the State Agriculture Minister, Shri P Prasad informed that NABARD has come forward to take a stake in the company on the same day when CABCO was formed.
Formed on the PPP model, currently the shareholding in CABCO is 33 per cent government, 24 per cent farmers, 25 per cent farm groups, FBOs, agricultural cooperatives, 13 per cent public market and 5 per cent financial institutions. The Minister said that with the addition of NABARD, CABCO will be able to move forward in a better way. A share of the profit earned by CABCO will be given to the farmers.
At present, agricultural products in Kerala are available in the market under the brand ‘Kerala Grow’. As many as 195 products have been made available through online platforms. Kerala Grow products of all the farmhouses in the state will be brought to the market by this year. The minister stated that Kerala is targeting an international market of 500 crores this year.
20.23 lakh tonnes of vegetables are required in Kerala. But we produce only 17.1 lakh tonnes. However, it has increased from 6.28 lakh tonnes of vegetables in 2015-16 to 17.12 lakh tonnes.
Public Education & Labor Minister, V Sivankutty; Food & Public Distribution Minister, GR Anil; Transport Minister, Antony Raju; and Principal Secretary of Agriculture Department, Dr B Ashok were present.