AGRI-EXPORTS
– ECONOMY
News: Importance of agri exports — and what Govt can do to boost India’s farm trade surplus
What's
in the news?
●
India’s
agriculture exports have grown 16.5% year-on-year in April-September, and look
set to surpass the record $50.2 billion achieved in 2021-22 (April-March).
● Interestingly, even commodities whose exports have been subjected to curbs - wheat, rice and sugar have shown impressive jumps in shipments.
Key
takeaways:
●
Agri-exports recently touched an all-time
high of $50.3 billion, registering a growth of 20 per cent over the preceding
year.
● Since India being the world's biggest exporter of virtual water, it is necessary to look at exporting commodities like rice and sugar from an environmental sustainability perspective, despite getting an enormous gain from it.
Agri-export
basket of India:
●
India has been a net exporter of agri products since the economic reforms began in 1991.
●
Among the key agriculture commodities
exported from India were marine
products, basmati rice, buffalo meat, spices, non-basmati rice, cotton raw, oil
meals, sugar, castor oil and tea.
●
The major export destinations were the USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran, Nepal, and
Bangladesh.
●
India’s agricultural export basket is
changing from traditional commodities to non-traditional processed foods.
●
Traditionally, Basmati rice is one of the
top export commodities. However, now there is an unusual spike in the export of
non-basmati rice.
●
Indian buffalo meat is seeing a strong
demand in international markets due to its lean character and near organic
nature. The export potential of buffalo meat is tremendous, especially in
countries like Vietnam, Hong Kong and Indonesia.
●
The export of processed food products has
not been growing fast enough because India lacks comparative advantage in many
items.
● However, its total agricultural export basket accounts for a little over 2.5 percent of world agricultural trade, coming at the huge cost of the environment.
Concerns
of environmental sustainability in agri-exports:
1.
Virtual export of water:
●
Being a water stressed country, India is
the largest exporter of virtual water by exporting water intensive
agri-commodities like rice and
sugarcane, amounting to nearly 62 billion cubic metres of virtual water,
having much of its need from ground waters affecting the local environmental
conditions leading to water disaster.
2.
GHG emissions:
●
Rice production systems are among the most
important sources of anthropogenic methane
emissions, contributing to 17.5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions along
with nitrous oxide generated from
nitrogenous fertilizers causing environmental damage through global warming
and climate change consequences.
3.
Land degradation:
●
The extensive agriculture along with over
irrigation, overuse of fertilizers and faulty agricultural practice to gain
high production leads to deterioration of soil and land making it harmful for
future use.
4.
Monoculture:
●
Cultivation of rice and sugarcane largely
leads to monocultural cropping along with excessive use of pesticides and
fertilizers leads to the destruction of natural ecosystems, having a devastating effect on the biodiversity and
the micro-climate.
5.
Groundwater contamination:
● From agricultural fields, nitrogenous fertilizers leach into the soil and contaminate groundwater, thereby resulting in heavy metal pollution affecting the health of the ecosystem.
Need
for re-examination of agri-export basket: Thus, the present
agricultural exporting commodities have a very serious concern in terms of
sustainability. Hence, it is the need of the hour to re-examine the agri-export
basket of India as follows.
1.
Diversification of export basket:
●
It is high-time to move from traditional
exporting commodities such as rice, sugarcane, buffalo meat which are water
guzzlers to non-traditional products
such as millets, perishables, fruits, etc to promote novel, indigenous,
organic and environmentally friendly agriculture.
2.
Value-addition:
●
The Indian agricultural exports need to
shift from primary agriculture (i.e. exporting of raw grains) to secondary agriculture (i.e. processed
value added products) to integrate Indian agricultural exports with the
transforming global supply chain to capture more markets.
3.
Re-define agricultural export policy:
●
Rather than supporting commodities by
means of subsidies such as free provision of power, MSP, fertilizer subsidy as
they are causing severe environmental damage, its high time to move towards agro-climatic regionalisation, thereby
promoting one district-one agricultural product which is in nurture with
locally available resources.
●
In such a way the government can establish
regional production belts through 'Cluster-based'
approach through FPOs in respect to the climatic features.
4.
Promoting organic exports:
● The government through its agency APEDA is making efforts to boost export of organic produce and products from the country through various initiatives such as National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP), Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER) to promote the potential of regional specific organic agriculture, thereby promoting 'India Organic' brand across the global market.
WAY
FORWARD:
●
It is high time that the policymakers must
revisit the entire gamut of rice and sugar systems from their MSP/FRP to their
production in an sustainable manner by adopting environmentally sustainable practices such as alternate wetting drying
(AWD), direct-seeded rice (DSR) and micro-irrigation to reduce the
exporting of virtual water in the short term.
●
To increase investment in agricultural research and development to improve
productivity on a sustainable basis and improve farming practices for
minimising carbon emissions.
● The long-term strategy should aim for promoting better diversification of our agricultural systems by incentivising and rewarding farmers to switch from rice and sugar to other less water guzzling crops such as millets, pulses and other perishables, etc. to conserve scarce water resources and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint.
Thus, the Indian Government
needs to re-examine its agri-export basket to reduce the damaging environment
caused by the wrong choice of crop selection and cultivation practices in
respect to the localised condition. Hence, it is high time now to harness the
export potential of Indian agriculture, through sustainable policy measures,
thereby making India a global power in
agriculture.