The Maharashtra Agricultural Competitiveness Project (MACP) (www.macp.gov.in) has hired services of MART to establish the Agri Business Promotion Facility (ABPF) under the project. ABPF under MACP has been established to provide technical, management and coordination support to the project stakeholders. The ABPF plays a catalytic role in increasing the contribution of Agri Business sector to Gross
Domestic Product of the state, foreign exchange earnings of the agricultural producers and employment. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, ABPF works closely with the project stakeholders and facilitates creation of supportive eco-system for Agribusiness enterprises / farmer groups / farmers to participate in the agricultural and allied sector value chains. MART led consortium has been appointed as ABPF. It is currently operational in 10 Phase 1 districts of the Project. It has set up 3 offices viz. Head Office at Pune, 2 Sub Offices one each at Aurangabad (covering Aurangabad, Ahmednagar, Jalna, Parbhani and Hingoli districts) and Amravati (covering Amravati, Akola, Washim, Yavatmal and Buldhana districts). Agri Business Promotion Facility is mandated with four components as follows
• reinforcing agri business knowledge base in the state by designing research studies
• Building capacities of officials of ATMA and Line departments, staff of APMC and RHs and Service Providers by organizing training programmes
• Enhance agri business investment in the state by handholding and preparing agri business proposal for individuals and producer groups
• Organize state and regional events on the themes relevant to project and bring out publications in the form of success stories, manuals etc.
