Monday, November 28 2005 16:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: West Bengal today (Nov 28, 2005) invited foreign investment to develop food-processing sector in tune with its endeavor to integrate state's economy with rest of the world.

"We need private capital, both domestic and Foreign Director Investment. Without FDI we can't progress," Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here at FICCI organized summit "Food world India 2005'.

Investors can set up processing units at the food parks and special agri export zones, he said adding they can also develop cold storage networks.

"We also welcome investments in Research and Development (R&D) activities," he said.

Turning to food processing sector, he said nearly 10-13 per cent of agricultural produce perish in the fields due to lack of marketing mechanism.

"We invite investors to developing marketing mechanism," he said adding, "We also want to improve economic conditions of the farmers".

The Chief Minister said his state recorded an impressive four per cent farm sector growth when country's overall farm sector registered only 1.1 per cent growth.

"Lack of land reforms across the country is main reason behind the slow farm sector growth," he said and attributed widespread land reform measures in the state empowering small and marginal farmers to be the reason behind high farm growth.