- Maharashtra, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has launched a unique initiative called “SMART” to transform rural area.
- SMART stands for State of Maharashtra’s Agribusiness and Rural Transformation.
- This World Bank assisted project aims to revamp agricultural value chains, with special focus on marginal farmers across 1,000 villages.
- As per State Chief Minister, this initiative is a step towards doubling farmers’ income by 2022. He added that it will also support post-harvest value chain and bring efficiency to benefit economy at large. Stimulating small and medium enterprises within the value chain, the project seeks to establish partnership between the various stakeholders in the agri-business segments including farmer organisations, start-ups, SMEs and large corporates along with women’s self-help groups.
- The project will entail an investment of 300 million US dollars of which World Bank would contribute 210 million US dollars. Almost 50 Memorandum of Understanding, involving top corporate houses like Amazon and Tata were signed on the occasion.
