Boosting agriculture exports is the focus

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) with AFC India Limited (formerly Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd) and National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) to synergize their activities in agriculture and allied sectors for bringing better value to the stakeholders.

APEDA has been focusing on capacity building of various stakeholders and providing solutions for development of agriculture and increasing export of agricultural produce in accordance with the objectives set under Agriculture Export Policy.

The policy was framed with the focus on agriculture export oriented production, export promotion, better price realization to farmer and synchronization within policies and programmes of Government of India. It focuses on ’Farmer Centric Approach’ for improved income through value addition at source itself to help minimize losses across the value chain.

This can be achieved by developing product specific clusters in different agro climatic zones of the country to help in dealing with various supply side issues such as soil nutrients management, higher productivity, adoption of market oriented variety of crop, use of good agriculture practices etc. Accordingly, 20 cluster level committees have been formed in the cluster districts of 9 states.