Speaking to The Financial Express, the minister said the new policy will provide for leasing in and leasing out of land holdings. Recently the centre had written to the states to make the necessary changes in the law to allow the provision for leasing in and leasing out of land holdings.

Since the land holdings were fragmented due to hereditary transfers and a rise in the number of families depending on such specific holdings, such a provision was long overdue to boost agricultural production, he said.

He suggested that the corporate houses can take advantage of this change in the law and can also go for contract farming which would not require any major change in the existing land-ceiling laws. The corporate houses can develop backward linkages and provide pre- and post-harvest technologies to minimise losses. He, however, ruled out total corporatisation of agriculture which will displace the farmers and effect major changes in the existing land-ceiling laws.

Som Pal stated that the new agriculture policy will allow the use of 80 million hectare of identified as marginal and wastelands for development. Out of this 80 million hectare, about 40 million will be earmarked for forestry. The industry can come forward in the development of wastelands under the existing subsidy scheme monitored by the union ministry of rural areas and employment. The development of agro-forestry will also help the paper industry in the country to a great extent.

He said that in the new policy agriculture has been defined as ``human enterprise to biomass through optimum utilisation of land, water and other natural resources''. The industry is free to choose in whichever sector they can aid development of agriculture.

Som Pal said that industry can help development of agriculture by developing cold chains for horticulture produces, storage facilities for foodgrains and micro-marketing infrastructure in rural areas. They can also introduce refrigerated transportation services. This will minimise post-harvest losses to a considerable extent and provide better returns to the farmers.According to the Panse Committee report, the annual post-harvest losses in foodgrains is 9.33 per cent of the total production amounting to roughly 20 million tonnes. The farmers retained 65 per cent of agricultural production at farm level for meeting local requirements of food, seeds and fodder.

The Indian Grain Storage Management and Research Institute (IGMRI) in its recent study estimated that the farmers retained 43.69 per cent of wheat produced and 47.95 per cent of paddy produced at the farm level. Though more than 85 per cent of the installed storage has been utilised by farmers, the farmers need more storage capacity at the farm level. It suggested construction of storage structures of 1 to 25-quintal capacity of metal bins for wheat and 25 to 100-quintal capacity of pucca kothi for rice at farm level.

IGMRI has also estimated losses in grinding of wheat at 0.43 per cent and losses in grinding of maize at 1.42 per cent. Losses caused by rodents during storage amounted to 2.41 per cent and losses during storage of paddy ranged between 0.87 and 4.07 per cent. Losses during transportation of paddy is 0.65 per cent and that of wheat is 0.16 per cent. The losses to paddy at mandi level is 1.84 per cent and that of wheat is 0.68 per cent. The storage loss of paddy in the central pool amounted to 4.99 per cent and that of wheat is 4.10 per cent.

The union minister for rural areas and employment, Babagouda Patil said that his ministry will decentralise CAPART programme for holding of more gram shree melas in collaboration with NGOs in a year for marketing rural products keeping the local conditions. Som Pal said that in another major area where the corporate houses can help is in the supply of improved agricultural inputs, sprinkler sets and drip irrigation instruments. The government has already de-reserved this sector which was earlier reserved for the small sector. Government has also removed levies, excise and sales tax on agricultural implements.

He said that the new policy will ensure at raising both private and public investments in agriculture. Nabard's equity based has been raised by Rs 500 crore, the recapitalisation of RRBs has been undertaken and recapitalisation of the cooperative banks are under study. The government will float the new modified comprehensive crop insurance scheme (MCCIS) to cover all crops and a subsidiary of GIC will be launched to monitor the scheme. When the insurance sector will be open to domestic industry, the private sector can participate in crop insurance, he said.