Expressing his strong belief that the ‘fusion approach’ being taken by India is the best way to address several issues in agriculture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India’s policy of a fusion of ‘back to basics’ and ‘march to future’ has been promoting natural farming as well as technology-enabled farming, resulting in the farmers across the country taking up natural farming.

 

Virtually addressing the Agriculture Ministers as part of the G20 Agriculture Working Group meetings being held at Novotel, HICC, Madhapur on Friday, Modi asserted that India’s G20 priorities in agriculture focused on healing our ‘One Earth,’ creating harmony within our ‘One Family’ and giving hope for a bright ‘One Future.’

 

He said that the farmers practising natural farming were not using synthetic fertilisers or pesticides, and their focus has been on rejuvenating the mother earth, protecting soil health, producing ‘per drop, more crop,’ and promoting organic fertilisers and pest management solutions.

 

The PM pointed out how farmers have been using technology to boost productivity, generating and using solar power in their farms, using soil health cards to optimise crop selection, and using drones to spray nutrients and monitor their crops.

 

Explaining how due to the influence of markets and marketing the value of traditionally grown food crops like millets has been lost, Modi appealed to the world to embrace 'Shri Anna Millets as the food of our choice,' as 2023 was being celebrated as the International Year of the Millets.

 

Opining that the traditional practices from different parts of the world could inspire us to develop alternatives for regenerative agriculture, the PM emphasised the need to empower the farmers with innovation and digital technology and to make solutions affordable for small and marginal farmers in the Global South, where 60% jobs were in the agriculture sector.

 

He said that the responsibilities of an agriculture minister were not only limited to handling one sector of the economy but also extended towards securing the future of humanity. He urged the Agriculture Ministers to deliberate on how to undertake collective action to achieve global food security, find ways to build a sustainable and inclusive food system that focused on marginal farmers and strengthen the global fertiliser supply chains.

 

Around 200 delegates from G20 member countries, nine special invitee countries and representatives of international organisations have attended the meetings, which will conclude on Saturday, with the AWG adopting resolutions for future action.

Canada’s minister of agriculture and agri-food Marie-Claude Bibeau took part in the G20 agriculture ministers meeting in Hyderabad last week where she also held a bilateral meeting with minister of agriculture and farmers welfare Narendra Singh Tomar on the sidelines of the multilateral event.

 

'Agricultural clean technologies, sustainable development and India’s potential as a driver of global food security through its agricultural sector and millet production', Bibeau wrote on her official Twitter account after her meeting with Tomar.

 

She later added that they discussed agricultural clean technologies, sustainable development and India’s potential as a driver of global food security through its agricultural sector and millet production.

 

After his meeting with Bibeau, Tomar said, 'Canada has a huge agricultural production and agro-technological advancements, which offer potential for cooperation with India'.

 

He added that their discussions focused on reforms in agricultural relations between the two countries.

 

This is the second visit by a Canadian cabinet minister to India for G20 events after the relationship took a hit due to the appearance of a parade float featuring the assassination of late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, during an event on June 4 in Brampton on the 39th anniversary of Operation Bluestar, the military action ordered by the late PM in 1984 to flush out separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale and his supporters from the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

 

The incident had sparked a huge outrage in India.

 

Reacting to the developments, minister of external affairs S Jaishankar expressed his disappointment.

 

'Frankly, we are at a loss to understand other than the requirements of vote bank politics why anybody would do this... I think there is a larger underlying issue about the space, which is given to separatists, to extremists, to people who advocate violence,' Jaishankar said while addressing the media.

 

Recently, India has sent a note verbale, an official diplomatic communication, to Global Affairs Canada (GAC), over pro-Khalistan groups planning a car rally to a memorial in Toronto established in memory of the 331 victims of the bombing of Air India flight 182, the Kanishka, on June 23, 1985.

 

The rally, which is scheduled for June 25 has, riled India over the fact that it honours Talwinder Singh Parmar, the Babbar Khalsa International leader, considered the mastermind of the terror attack.

 

Canada’s minister of international development Harjit Sajjan participated in the three-day G20 development Ministers meeting in Varanasi after the rally’s report surfaced.

 

Canada’s minister of international trade, export, small business and economic development, Mary Ng’s department has issued an invitation to Canadian companies interested in exploring new business opportunities in India, while announcing the dates for the trade mission from October 9 to 13.

 

Ng is also expected to visit India in August for the G20 trade ministers meeting where she is expected to meet commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal and carry forward their discussions towards putting together the Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA) between the two countries.

 

Goyal visited Ottawa in May and held bilateral talks with Ng providing momentum to the negotiations.

There is a need for farmers to get their unique jackfruit varieties registered with PPVFRA (Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority), according to Sanjay Kumar Singh, Director of the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR).

 

Speaking to businessline on the sidelines of a jackfruit festival at Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, he said the varieties registered under this get royalty on the price at which the plant is sold.

 

Research institutions like IIHR help farmers get such varieties’ medicinal value, usage, and processing value. These registered varieties can be commercialised. IIHR also aids in propagating the farmers’ varieties. When such varieties are cultivated on large areas, quantity increases, and this paves the way fororganised retail.

 

He said jackfruit grows in different States of the country and in tropical, sub-tropical, arid and semi-arid regions.

 

Process at least 60% of output

Stating that IIHR, Bengaluru, has conserved around 400 varieties of jackfruit, he said it is collaborating with farmers in different regions where the jackfruit diversity is there. Apart from cataloguing, the institute conserves them at its centre. These varieties have different characteristics in size, colour of the flake, nutritional value and the season of ripening.

 

He suggested that the state biodiversity boards spend money on conserving unique varieties of jackfruit. Such an effort can help conserve such varieties at research institutes and germ-plasm sites designated by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

 

Stakeholders in jackfruit sector should make efforts to bring at least around 60 per cent of the production to the processing sector so that processed products are available throughout the year. He said there is a need to develop jackfruit joints like modern food joints. All the dishes, processed products and planting materials should be available in such joints, he said.

 

In fact, raw jackfruit is emerging as a vegan meat in India and abroad, and the stakeholders should take advantage of such preferences of consumers, he said.

 

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday advised NABARD to take steps to augment rural credit by correcting regional imbalances for better productivity in rural areas including in the non-farm sector.

 

Chairing a review meeting on NABARD, Sitharaman also emphasised the need for concerted efforts to sensitise farmers to shift towards more remunerative but less water-guzzling crops, especially millets, pulses and oilseeds.

 

With production and marketing of Shree Anna as a national priority in the ongoing international year of millets 2023, Sitharaman directed NABARD to encourage farmers to enhance the area covered under millets, and to protect the returns of farmers who are already growing millets.

 

The detailed review of working of NABARD was undertaken by the Union Finance Minister in the presence of Nabard Chairman KV Shaji and Department of Financial Services (DFS) Secretary Vivek Joshi and other senior officials of DFS.

 

Sitharaman took note of the significant initiatives of NABARD in recent years and advised the institution to work towards ensuring efficiency and outcomes at the ground level with improvement in rural income as top priority.

 

She also directed NABARD to facilitate the aggregation of organic producers by Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), with a focus on the North-East.

 

Sitharaman said that improving the digital capabilities of Rural Financial Institutions, including RRBs, be facilitated on priority for augmenting meaningful financial inclusion.

 

In reference to various measures taken by NABARD in the aftermath of the Finance Minister’s visit to various States to drive development and financial inclusion, the NABARD Chairman apprised Sitharaman about the development package of Rs.25,991 crore for infrastructure development, FPOs, SHGs, off farm development for Jammu and Kashmir.

 

North East focus

He also informed the FM about the enhanced RIDF allocation for 2022-23 from Rs.800 crore to Rs.1,400 crore. NABARD Chairman also pointed out to the Finance Minister that Rs.366.93 crore has been released for Jammu & Kashmir towards recapitalisation of 3DCCBs.

 

For Nagaland, the Finance Minister was apprised about the saturation of all Government schemes and also about 256 credit outreach camps that were organised in the State by the banks where 38,370 loans have been sanctioned.

 

For Karnataka, the NABARD Chairman told the Finance Minister that RIDF support of Rs.25 crore has been approved for UAS, Raichur of Millet Value Chair Park.

 

India and the UK concluded the tenth round of talks for a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) last week, and the next round of negotiations is due to take place in the coming month, the government said on Monday.

 

Technical discussions were held across 10 policy areas in over 50 separate sessions and detailed draft treaty text discussions took place in these areas.

 

'On June 9, India and the United Kingdom concluded the tenth round of talks for an India-UK FTA,' the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.

 

The negotiations for the agreement were launched on January 13, 2021.

 

The talks included detailed draft treaty text discussions in these policy areas, it said, adding, that the eleventh round of negotiations is due to take place in the coming month.

 

The bilateral trade between the countries has increased to $20.36 billion in FY23 from $17.5 billion in FY22.

 

India’s main exports to the UK are ready-made garments and textiles, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, petroleum and petrochemical products, while key imports include precious and semi-precious stones, ores and metal scraps, and engineering goods.

Notwithstanding India’s efforts to diversify its merchandise exports, the country’s dependence on the US for its outbound shipments has increased over the past 12 years by 7 percentage points to touch 17.4 per cent share in 2022-23 (FY23).

 

In contrast, the share of the US in India’s total exports has continuously declined from a high of 21.7 per cent in 1998-99 to a low of 10.1 per cent in 2010-11, reveals India’s Department of Commerce data. During the pandemic years of 2020-21 and 2021-22, the export share of the US was even higher than the FY23 levels.

 

In its vision statement released during the mid-term review of the 2015-2020 foreign trade policy in 2017, the Ministry of Commerce said the policy of market diversification that has stood India in good stead during the global economic downturn will continue to be a key determinant of the country’s trade policy, together with product diversification.

As the newly-elected Congress government in Karnataka grapples with the challenge of securing rice supplies to fulfill its electoral pledge, farmer leaders and experts propose an alternative solution — that the State explore the possibility of procuring millets like ragi and jowar directly from local farmers at the minimum support price.

 

Such a move would help address the nutritional security besides encouraging farmers to grow more millets, they said.

 

After the Food Corporation of India (FCI) decided to halt the sale of rice and wheat through the Open Market Sale Scheme to States, Karnataka is now seeking rice supplies from Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Punjab to fulfil its commitment of providing 10 kg rice to each member of households below the poverty line. The Union government discontinued the OMSS sales to States, with the exception of the North-East region, citing delayed monsoon and escalating cereal prices as the reasons behind this move.

 

'Instead of buying rice from other States to provide under public distribution system, the Government should procure ragi and jowar from local farmers and provide them to beneficiaries. Ragi is consumed in southern parts of the State, while jowar is consumed in the northern districts. This will also encourage farmers to grow more of these cereals and lead to employment opportunities in the state,' said Chamras Malipatil, President of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS). Also, the Government can look at providing sona masuri rice to the beneficiaries, he added.

 

Echoing similar views, farmer leader Kurubur Shantakumar, said by procuring ragi and jowar directly, the State should come to the rescue of farmers.

 

Prakash Kammaradi, agri-economist and former chairman of Karnataka Agriculture Prices Commission, said the State should look at providing 5 kg of jowar/ragi along with rice under the PDS. Such a move will help address the nutritional security, while giving a signal for farmers at the start of the kharif cropping season to plant more of these coarse cereals, he added.

 

'In the year of millets, it will be a win-win situation for the farmers, the government and the beneficiaries,' Kammaradi added.

Agriculture remains a vital pillar of the Indian economy and plays a central role in the nation’s socio-economic development. It contributes approximately 19 per cent to the GDP and supports a significant majority of the population, with about two-thirds of people relying on it.

 

The performance of agriculture has far-reaching implications for the growth of other industries and the overall economy, as it is interconnected through backward and forward linkages. It not only serves as a source of livelihood and food security for a large portion of the Indian population but also holds special importance for many FMCG organisations.

 

According to the National Sample Survey, the average monthly income per agricultural household has witnessed a notable increase from Rs.6,426 in 2012-13 to Rs.10,218 in 2018-19. The government has implemented various measures in targeted areas to bolster farmers’ income. The PM KISAN Scheme ensures income support for farmers, while the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana provides crop insurance coverage. Additionally, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana focuses on enhancing irrigation facilities.

 

Farmers also have access to institutional credit through initiatives such as the Kisan Credit Card and other channels. More recently, the Union cabinet approved a scheme that plans to allocate Rs.1 trillion towards expanding cooperative sector storage capacity by 70 million tonnes. This ambitious project, set to become the world’s largest grain storage plan within the cooperative sector, aims to address key challenges faced by farmers and strengthen the country’s food security.

 

Let us delve into the significant benefits that this ambitious plan holds for India.

 

Empowering farmers, expanding opportunities

The increase in grain storage capacity on such a monumental scale will empower farmers to think beyond traditional boundaries. With the ability to store their produce effectively, farmers can now explore large-scale production and tap into export markets. This newfound flexibility will enable them to maximise their outputs, leading to increased incomes and a brighter future for farming communities across the nation.

 

Price stability, reduced distress sales

Inadequate storage facilities often force farmers into distress sales, negatively impacting their income and perpetuating a cycle of losses. However, with a significant expansion in storage capacity, the risks associated with crop damage and distress sales can be minimised. The availability of proper storage infrastructure will ensure that farmers can store their produce efficiently, reducing wastage and stabilising prices. This stability will not only benefit the farmers but also provide consumers with a consistent supply of essential food grains at reasonable prices.

 

Economic impact, raw material availability

The scale of this storage capacity expansion will have a profound impact on the Indian economy as a whole. With a more stable agricultural sector, India can become a reliable source of raw materials throughout the year, bolstering various industries such as food processing, FMCG, and agribusinesses. This reliable availability of raw materials will enable these sectors to flourish, attracting investment, creating jobs, and boosting economic growth in both rural and urban areas.

 

Strengthening food security, meeting global commitments

Food security is a global concern, and India, as a member of the G20 and currently holding the G20 presidency, recognises the importance of addressing this issue. By significantly increasing grain storage capacity, India aims to enhance its food security measures, reducing its reliance on food grain imports. With a more robust storage infrastructure, the country can better manage its buffer stock and ensure a consistent supply of essential food grains to its citizens. This achievement aligns with the goals set by the G20 in achieving sustainable food security for all. Through this concerted effort, India aims to contribute to a more secure and resilient food system, ensuring a consistent supply of nutritious food for its citizens and beyond.

 

Job creation, rural development

The expansion of storage facilities in rural areas will create numerous employment opportunities. The construction, management, and maintenance of warehouses and storage units will generate jobs, boosting rural development and improving the standard of living for those residing in agricultural communities. The increased economic activity in these regions will lead to overall prosperity and contribute to the equitable growth of the nation.

 

Boosting FMCG sector, sustainable agriculture

The FMCG sector will experience a significant boost as a result of this ambitious storage capacity plan. With improved storage infrastructure, the sector can rely on a consistent and abundant supply of raw materials, enabling them to scale up production and meet growing consumer demands. This expansion will foster innovation, investment, and competition, resulting in a dynamic FMCG sector that contributes to the country’s economic growth. Additionally, sustainable agricultural practices can be encouraged through the efficient management of stored grains, reducing wastage and promoting resource conservation.

 

Conclusion

India’s ambitious plan to establish the world’s largest grain storage capacity in the cooperative sector is poised to revolutionise agriculture and the FMCG industry. By empowering farmers, stabilising prices, strengthening food security, creating jobs, and bolstering the FMCG sector, this visionary scheme promises to transform the agricultural landscape of the country. As India works towards achieving its global commitments and fostering sustainable agricultural practices, the storage capacity expansion plan stands as a shining example of India’s dedication to economic growth, food security, and rural development.

An assessment undertaken by the UP State Export Promotion bureau has noted that exports from the state have gone up over 100% in the past six years.

 

Data from the department indicated that UP undertook exports to the tune of Rs 84,000 crore in 2016-17. The corresponding figure for the 2022-23 year was Rs 174,000 crore. The department is eying to make exports cross Rs 200,000 crore in the present financial year.

 

Details indicated that the top 10 buyers of goods from UP are USA, UAE, Nepal, UK, Germany, Vietnam, the Netherland, France, China and Egypt. Together they contribute to 60% of Uttar Pradesh's exports.

 

Among the products which are driving up the state’s exports are telecom instruments, buffalo meat, RMG cotton, including accessories, RMG manmade fibre, leather footwear, saddlery and harness, aluminum and aluminum products, silk and handmade carpets, machinery and engineering goods, wheat, rice, sugar, iron and steel, handicrafts etc.

 

When contacted, Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi, cabinet minister for industries, export promotion,

NRI and Investment Promotion said: 'The plan for the 2023-24 financial year includes widening the export basket and increasing the number of exporters in the state, capacity building on export processes, unlocking the export potential of ODOP and geographical indication, leveraging e-commerce for exports growth, hand holding expertise at ground level, facilitate product development among other things.'

 

Earlier, as per an assessment by Federation of India Exports Organisation (FIEO), the reasons for UP’s growth have been the export promotion schemes of the state government. If an exporter is registered with the export promotion bureau, they will be helped with 60% of the stall charges at foreign fairs, up to a maximum of Rs 2 lakh, 60% of economy air fare up to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh, 60% of the total expenditure on publicity up to a maximum of Rs 75,000 annually, 75% of the cost of sending samples to a foreign buyer, up to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh per annum and 50% of the cost of certification, up to a maximum of Rs 2 lakh per annum.

Stating that the agriculture sector is facing several challenges globally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged the G20 Agriculture Ministers Meeting to deliberate on how to undertake collective action for achieving global food security. In a video message to the three-day meeting underway in Hyderabad, Modi said climate change is causing extreme weather events more and more frequently, and these challenges are felt most by the global South.

 

'Globally, agriculture provides livelihood for over 2.5 billion people. In the global South, agriculture accounts for almost 30 per cent of the GDP and over 60 per cent of jobs and today this sector faces several challenges. The supply chain disruption caused by the pandemic has been worsened by the impact of geopolitical tensions,' the Prime Minister said.

 

'Climate change is causing extreme weather events, more and more frequently. These challenges are felt most by the global South,' Modi added.

 

He said India's policy is the fusion of 'back to basics and march to future' even as the country is promoting natural farming as well as technology-enabled agriculture.

 

Modi said farmers all over the country are taking up natural farming by not using synthetic fertilisers or pesticides with a focus on rejuvenating mother Earth.