The government has launched a draft Agriculture Export Policy. It aims at doubling agricultural exports and integrate Indian farmers and agricultural products to the global value chain. In the past months, meetings with various stakeholders were held and now based on their feedback the draft has been prepared. It is expected that the policy will bring about yet another revolution like the green revolution.

There is little doubt about necessity of such a policy. India is already overburdened with a massive and ever-increasing population, with around 2 million new mouths adding to it every month. So, increasing the production of food is of extreme importance. Additionally, we are increasingly facing hostile weather conditions in recent years. Also, emphasis must be given to research and development. The tendency to put farm land non-farm to uses must also be prevented. All these challenges needs to be taken care of.

The government has set up an ambitious target of doubling farm income by 2022. Without doubt, it is a daunting task, which will require, beside addressing the above mentioned concerns, augmentation of exports from the sector. In fact, there has been a long-felt need for a dedicated agricultural export policy, and now the release of the draft policy is a welcome news. The draft policy contains some valuable suggestions which, if implemented properly, will change the fortune of the farmers in the country.

Some major objectives set by the policy include, increase the share of agricultural exports from present $30+ billion to $60+ billion by 2022; boost high value and value added agricultural exports, focusing on perishables; provide an institutional mechanism for tackling market access barriers and deal with sanitary and phytosanitary issues; become one of the top 10 exporting countries of agricultural products. Needless to say these are ambitious targets, and success will depend on commitment.

I invite your opinions.