Agronomics is Pawar’s new passion

baramati: it may sound strange, but sharad pawar's latest passion have little to do with politics. once among the most powerful politicians in maharashtra and in the congress, sharad pawar is currently engrossed in encouraging the manufacture and export of processed fruit products from western maharashtra, bridging the urban-rural 'digital divide' and promoting education and human resources development among the rural poor.biding his time for an appropriate political opportunity, mr pawar, who currently finds himself on the outer fringes of national politics, is reluctant to discuss political issues and controversies. rather than comment on george fernandes's controversial return as defence minister, or the continuing financial bankruptcy of the maharashtra government, of which his nationalist congress party is a part, mr pawar preferred to speak about his newly-established think-tank in delhi, the cita (centre for international trade in agriculture and agrobased industries), his plan to bring e-commerce, e-governance and eeducation to 100 villages in pune district, and the effort to further consolidate the milk-producers' cooperative in baramati taluka and elsewhere in western maharashtra. in tune with the on-going domestic and international changes resulting from the wto agreements, mr pawar appears determined to bring about a change in the agricultural sector. and this change, he says, will come through private investments and enterprise and not through government initiatives as was attempted in the past. our farmers should no longer be content with selling fruits and vegetables. what we must lay thrust on are value-added agricultural products, he stresses. pointing out that the baramatibased dynamix dairy was successfully packaging fruit juices for tropicana and milk-products for nestle, mcdonalds and britannia among others, pawar says he has initiated the setting up of a rs 50 crore plant at dynamix dairy for producing concentrates of pomegranate, mango and guava produced in sangli, satara, solapur, ahmednagar and other parts of maharashtra. the plant would be operational within a year and the marketing of the processed fruit products will be done not through a cooperative but through a private limited company with farmers being the shareholders. what has bolstered his confidence on this front is the existing tie-up between the k.m. goenkaowned dynamix dairy, and the baramati taluka milk producers' acssociation, which has been processing on a daily basis over half-amillion litres of milk. while the fruit-processing plant is a move to broaden this tie-up, pawar's plans to give a boost to agro-processing are also taking shape through his newly-created think-tank in delhi - the centre for international trade in agriculture and agro-based industries (cita). pawar says cita would function as a non-political body and work with various agro-based organisations in the country to protect their interests in the face of the wto agreements. various sugar producers' associations, the national dairy development board, the national egg coordination committee and a host of other agro-based associations and federations are already associated with cita. technology comes close on the heels of his agricultural pursuits.a school of biotechnology and a college of engineering are the latest additions to the sprawling vidya pratisthan educational complex at baramati. and there are plans to launch his version of the 'wired village' project in his hometown. the plan to digitally link 100 villages of pune district is now in its final stages and what this project will do is bring e-commerce, e-governance and e-education to the villages, mr pawar claims. while the e-commerce component will provide farmers with a range of commodity prices in different markets in india and abroad, the e-governance component would help take the administration before the people.