Agri export policy soon to empower farmers: Modi

As India eyes at a record farm production, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said he would soon unveil a new agri-export policy to boost farmers' income.

In his address to the nation on 72nd Independence Day, Modi spoke of modernising agriculture practices in the country and the opportunities for farmers to increase their income by embracing organic farming and allied activities such as bee-keeping.

“Our farmers have to face global markets and modern farm techniques are the need of the hour. We are focused on modernising agriculture … we are moving towards a new agriculture export policy,” Modi said.

The Commerce Ministry had released a draft agriculture export policy in March that aims at doubling farm exports from the current 30 billion dollars to 60 billion dollars by 2022.

Modi also spoke about value addition to farm produce, which is a key feature of the draft agriculture export policy. It aims at boosting high value and value-added agricultural exports by focusing on perishable and providing an institutional mechanism to farmers to deal with sanitary and phytosanitary issues.

The Prime Minister also reiterated his pledge to double farmers’ income by 2022.

“We have dreamt of doubling farmers’ income by 2022. Some people have expressed apprehension, it is but natural, but we are firm in our resolve. Our decisions are cast in stone and not in butter (Hum makkhan par lakeer nahin, patthar par lakeer kheechnewale hain),” Modi said.

“With the motto of ‘beej se bazaar tak’ (from seeds to markets), we are bringing a remarkable change in the agriculture sector,” he said.

Modi also noted that Indian farmers were purchasing a record number of tractors, and adopting improved methods like drip and sprinklers for irrigating their fields.