'8 states finalise action plan for agri export policy'

The government on Sunday said eight states, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka, have finalised action plan for agriculture export policy which aims to double such exports.

"The Agri Export Policy was announced last year with an objective of doubling the export and ensuring doubling of farmers' income...Many states have nominated nodal agency and nodal officer. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Punjab and Karnataka have finalised the State Action Plan and other states are at different stages of finalization of the action plan," the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement.

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has been adopting a focused approach for ensuring greater involvement of the state governments for effective implementation of Agri Export Policy (AEP).

Throughout the year APEDA held a series of meetings with state government officials and other stakeholders for preparation of state action plan which included all essential components like production clusters, capacity building, infrastructure and logistics and research and development and budget requirements for the implementation of AEP, it said.

Several rounds of discussions were held with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ministry of Food Processing Industries and other agencies for seeking inputs for formulating a strategy to increase exports and address the existing bottlenecks in the trade.

State level monitoring committees have been formed in many of the states. Cluster visits have been made by APEDA nodal officers to the product clusters, it added.

The roadmap for cluster development in the clusters notified under AEP was prepared to address the identified interventions during the cluster visits.

"As a result of cluster visits by APEDA, the cluster level committee has been constituted in the states viz. potato in Punjab, isabgol

in Rajasthan, pomegranate, orange and grapes in Maharashtra and banana in Tamil Nadu," the statement said.

APEDA organised a number of seminars and meetings for the implementation of AEP throughout the year.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the National Cooperative Development Corporation to include co-operatives for active role in AEP.

A Farmer Connect Portal has also been set up by APEDA on its website for providing a platform for Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and Farmer Producer Companies to interact with exporters, it said.