Gangtok: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said India has become the highest producer of milk, pulses and jute in the world, and is second largest in production of rice, wheat, sugarcane, ground nut, vegetable fruits and cotton, and leading producer of spices and plantation crops.
We exported agricultural produce worth Rs 2.32 lakh crore this year, after addressing the consumption needs of 1.2 billion population and stocking food much above buffer norms, Pawar said.
Pawar was inaugurating the North Academic Block of College of Agricultural Engineering and Post Harvest Technology under Central Agricultural University at Raniphool in Sikkim.
The CAU is going to set up an agricultural college in Arunachal Pradesh and a Horticultural College in Sikkim, he said.
Pawar said he was happy to note that the College of Agricultural Engineering in Sikkim is trying to develop gravity-based ropeway for material handling, packaging, food processing and use of by-products/residues for feed and fuel.
Governor Shriniwas Patil and Sikkim chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling also spoke. Chamling said, Sikkim can be the centrestage for promotion of agricultural research and education for the entire North and the North-East region.
