Comments
Keeping a keen eye on the proposed draft National Agriculture Export Policy (NAEP), one of the Centre’s key policy measures to help double farm exports and farmers’ incomes by 2022, the Prime Minister’s Office (PM) has asked the Commerce Ministry to make a detailed presentation on the proposed measures before placing them before the Union Cabinet for approval.
“The NAEP has proposed a number of measures to remove unnecessary regulations that are holding back our farm exports. The PMO wants to vet all the suggested measures to ensure that the intended objective is attained,” a government official told BusinessLine .
A key suggestion of the policy is removal of export restrictions, such as imposition of a minimum export price or export ban, for processed agricultural products and all organic products.
It also suggests not imposing export restrictions on commodities apart from those identified as essential from the food security perspective. These commodities will be identified by the relevant stakeholders and ministries. The move, according to the proposal, will establish India as a reliable supplier of agriculture commodities in the world market.
Eye on polls
With the general elections scheduled for 2019, the government is measuring its steps carefully, especially ones which could affect farmers.
While the policy doesn’t seek to provide direct incentives to exporters as these are banned under WTO norms for countries with an average per capita income of more that $1,000, it has several incentives lined up that are compatible with multilateral norms.
“There are proposals to promote marketing, build export infrastructure and develop a number of export clusters, which would require funding from the Finance Ministry. With the PMO’s support, it would be easier to get the necessary funds,” a Delhi-based agricultural expert said.
The thrust of the policy is to boost high-value and value-added agricultural exports, with a focus on perishables.
India’s share of such produce in the agriculture export basket is less than 15 per cent compared to 25 per cent for the US and 49 per cent for China.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.