CHANDIGARH: The country’s agricultural economy will have to play a key role if the country is to realise the target of eight per cent economic growth during the 10th Five-Year Plan period.

Addressing a seminar on the new agro-economy Agrotech 2002, its chairman Anand G Mahindra said corporate India had realised the importance of the agro sector only recently when it impacted its bottomlines, and added that a convergence of industry and agriculture could create a way out.

Giving a conceptual framework for growth, Sundeep Waslekar, president, Strategic Foresight Group, a Mumbai-based think tank, said five million Indians were middle class in the traditional sense of owning cars and mobiles. Another 35 million belonged to what he called the bike class while the rest were still in the bullock cart economy.

The challenge was to bring consumers from the bullock class into the bike class by transforming rural producers into consumers as well, he said.

Speaking about the problems of finance in agri-business, TC Venkat Subramanian, managing director, Exim Bank, said it could be solved by targetting the chain viewed as a better security risk.

He cited the example of Boeing financing a lease of aircraft to Ethiopian Airlines by getting banks to extend credit to Ethiopian Airlines, which was viewed as a better security risk than Ethiopia itself.

Speaking at the seminar, Cees Schakelaar, executive vice-president of Rabo Bank, said the bank, which entered the Indian market four years ago, dwelt on the Dutch experience in innovation.

He cited how 550 barges were used as a substitute for 70,000 trucks transporting bananas from Dutch ports, clearing up traffic congestion.

He said the bank, Holland's largest cooperative with 68,000 employees, was focussed on building long-term relationships rather than maximising shareholder value.