Agriculture export key to achieve state’s trillion-dollar economy goal

PRAYAGRAJ: With an aim to give a fillip to agricultural export in Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi government will soon organise international buyers-sellers meets in India and across the world to promote the state’s agricultural exports, state government representatives inform.

It will also set up a state level export facilitation centre/ agriculture export promotion cell at the existing directorate of agriculture marketing and agriculture foreign trade, UP, at Lucknow, they add.

In a bid to turn UP into the country’s first trillion dollar state economy and also fulfil PM Narendra Modi’s of doubling farmers’ income, the UP government notified first ever Uttar Pradesh Agriculture Export Policy-2019 on September 13.

“We aim to double the agricultural output from UP from the current US$ 2524 million (Rs 17,970 crore) by 2024. We have also decided to facilitate export of environmentally sustainable agricultural produce and also shift from export of unprocessed agricultural produce to value added products. Besides, we will identify and promote potential agricultural crops and products for export which are indigenous, organic and can compete in the international markets,” said UP minister for micro, small and medium enterprises and export promotion Sidharth Nath Singh.

He said to make this mission possible, the state government would be creating institutional mechanism for accessing global market and overcoming obstacles related to its management.

“We propose farming in a cluster with 50 to 100 hectares where crop would be produced as per requirement of foreign countries where it will be exported. The incentives would be given for five years for exporting at least 30 per cent of the produce. We will nurture existing clusters and identify and develop new ones for this mission,” said Singh. Besides, new food processing industries would be set up near these clusters where incentives would also be given for exporting 40 per cent of the

produce. “The incentives include Rs 10 per kilogram of produce exported by air and Rs 5 per kg for exports through ships,” he added.

There would be three committees to look into grievances and problems of the farmers and entrepreneurs under the new initiative: A state-level export monitoring committee headed by the chief secretary, a divisional level agricultural export monitoring committee with the divisional commissioner at the helm in every division besides a district-level cluster facilitation cell headed by the district magistrate in all 75 districts.

The minister, who is also the spokesman for the state government, said realising the challenges of producing export quality agri produce, the state government plans to set up pesticide residue, heavy metal and biological contamination testing labs accredited to National Accreditation Board for Testing and

Calibration Laboratories at state and divisional levels.

“Through public private partnership (PPP) mode we also plan to set up pack houses, collection centres, ripening chambers, reefer and non-refeer vans besides warehouses and cold storage facilities to make it possible,” he added.

TARGET POSSIBLE BUT CHALLENGES ABOUND: EXPERTS

Head of Allahabad University’s economics department Prof GC Tripathi dubs the state government’s agriculture export policy an ambitious move that could be successful if the steps needed are implemented perfectly.

“At no stage should we forget that the products we are dealing with are perishable. But the subsidies that the government plans to shower on investors, transporters etc besides the planned steps of constructing warehouses, pack houses and collection centres etc are all steps in the right direction,” says Tripathi, former vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

He said scrutiny of the policy itself reveals that the state government well realises the challenges and the potential both.

His colleague Prof Manmohan Krishna says the agri export policy is a step in the right direction but would need a lot of effort to realise the dream of doubling farmers’ earnings by 2024 and meeting the over US$ 5 billion export target.

“We need to first emerge as a regular exporter and for this we need to meet the export commitments on a regular basis. So the practice of surplus export would need to be replaced with produce grown and prepared for exports irrespective of its prevailing domestic prices. Initially this may even result in some loss but that would have to be borne to emerge as a big export player,” he opines.

He also pointed out that many European countries frequently raised standards for imports which also would need to be catered to.

This included not just the quality of the product but also its packaging and condition of these perishable items at the doorstep of the nations where they were being exported to. “So infrastructure for training and guiding the farmers on planting the crops to rearing them as per international standards, packing and transporting them in refrigerated environment to speedily exporting them keeping the costs low would be a real challenge,” he said.

Experts also point out given the depressed international market for food grain, sugar, cooking oil as well as dairy and meat products as a major challenge.

The practice of opening up imports whenever prices of crucial food items like potato, onion, pulses, etc start climbing would also need to be shunned as this hurts local producers. They point out numerous instances of sudden increase in export duties and lowering of import duties to keep food prices in check which could spoil the UP’s dream of emerging as a reliable, regular agri export centre of the world.