Vajpayee was addressing the inaugural session of Agro-Advantage Maharashtra in the city where he was the chief guest.

"Though the creation of the small farmers' consortium was announced nearly six years ago, no step was taken to implement it,'' Vajpayee said.

The prime minister also announced the formation of a task force on food and agro-industries management policy that will be headed by union agriculture minister Som Pal. Vajpayee said the task force would submit an action plan for examination and adoption by the government in thenext three months.

The government is determined to arrest and reverse damaging trends in the agro sector, the prime minister said. "The present state of affairs is largely owing to stagnant and, in some cases, declining rate of growth in public investment in farm infrastructure, post-harvest facilities such as cold chain, processing, quality control and marketing network in the past two decades," he said.

He said his government had taken steps to make small farmers' consortium function as a high-level coordination body at the centre and in states to promote public and private investments in agro business. It will also encourage mutually beneficial collaborations between cooperative sectors and corporates.The consortium has started the work of creating network institutions in states to attract investments in post-harvest facilities..

It will help farmers to part-process agricultural commodities like vegetables, fruits, ginger, groundnut for value addition and provide a link between the private sector,farmers cooperatives, agricultural NGOs and the government.

"North-east states and remote backward areas will be the special focus of the consortium," he said.Vajpayee said a national rural cooperative policy would be unveiled shortly. The cooperative sector was handicapped by certain constraints, which is why it was unable to fully benefit from reforms. "One of the primary aims of the policy will be to simplify rules and regulations governing farm cooperatives, and as a first step, we shall soon enact the long pending Multi-State Cooperative Act," he said.

Vajpayee said the centre had taken steps to strengthen and expand futures exchanges in many commodities to create stability for farm products, which have a high potential for value addition. A proper futures exchange is important to protect farmers from the vagaries of market forces, providing them an opportunity to hedge and reduce risks.The centre has recently strengthened the Forward Markets Commission, which will soon have many regional offices.