Watkins, who is currently in India with a team, to assess the available opportunities in the Indian agro sector, spoke at the IBP Agro-Food Seminar here on Thursday.

Earlier, in his presentation KK Sridhar, divisional vice president, Hindustan Lever, said: "Investment opportunity in India's agro-food sector could go up to 40 billion pounds," referring to the CII-McKinsey report entitled: Food & Agriculture Integrated Development Action (FAIDA), Modernising the Indian Food Chain.

All the UK firms--big or small--intending to benefit from India's vast potential in the agro and food sectors first need to collectively create anawareness among the government and corporates about the possible returns and employment opportunities that the fresh investments can generate. The food legislations in India is horrendous, its recipe-based legislation has to be changed at the earliest; taxation on the food sector is the highest compared to neighbouring countries like Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia to name just few.

"The industry here has already appealed to the government on the urgent need to set up an apex body for the food processing sector and even sought constitution of a national food ministry. These could help frame uniform policies that could attract investments in this sector similar to the levels in other industries like steel, infrastructure, software and the like."

Speaking to The Financial Express

, Watkins said: "Over the past 18 months, we have been touring eight leading states to assess their requirements in the agro and food sector. However, there are no big projects here that could absorb huge investments thatany reasonably mid-sized company in the UK would want to invest.

Among others these states were: Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Orissa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. "For this purpose we have had negotiations with some of the leading companies in the region and even some state run organisations and financial institutions."

Despite these constraints, Watkins said, some of our companies, feeling confident with their prospective Indian partners' smaller financial requirements, are negotiating for possible tie-ups. The requirements are more technical than financial, he added.

Addressing participants at the IBP Agro-Food Seminar, Watkins said: "We are impressed at the scale of investments required to bring a change in India's food. However, before substantial and worthwhile investments are made, all connected with the sector need to fine tune their activities."

Participating at the IBP's Agro-Food Seminar were Barry Linton, head of International Relations and Export Promotion division (IRED), Steve Caiger,managing director, Consultancy division, Oxford Natural Products and Mike Roberts, DTI Trade Promoter for India from Frank Roberts & Sons.