Exports of basmati rice increased by 25.54 per cent in April-June 2022-23 to USD 1.15 billion, the commerce ministry said on Saturday. The exports stood at USD 922 million in the year-ago period.

 

Non-basmati rice exports too increased by 5 per cent in June quarter to USD 1.56 billion, it said.

 

Exports of agricultural and processed food products rose by 31 per cent in the quarter to USD 7.4 billion.

 

For financial year 2022-23, an export target of USD 23.56 billion has been fixed by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) for the agricultural and processed food products basket, it said.

 

Among these products, sectors which recorded growth during the period under review include fresh fruits and vegetables, and cereals.

 

'The export of meat, dairy and poultry products increased by 9.5 per cent...dairy products alone recorded a growth of 67.15 per cent as its export rose to USD 191 million in the first three months of the current fiscal,' the ministry said.

 

M Angamuthu, Chairman, APEDA, said by creating a necessary ecosystem of exports along with collaboration with key stakeholders in the agri-exports value chains, 'we are aiming to sustain the growth in India's agricultural and processed food exports in the current fiscal as well'.

Assam Chief Minister Hemanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday discussed the modernization of the agriculture sector while attending the 7th Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog in Delhi.

 

The meeting mainly concentrated on the reduction of imports and finding more ways to produce paddy, millet, oil, pulses and others.

 

The Assam CM said, 'Last year, export was around Rs 50 lakh crore and the Prime Minister is now working on increasing it.'

 

'The main theme which I have seen is that the Prime Minister wants to make India an ‘Atmanirbhar’ country, imports to India should be reduced and exports from the country should be increased,' he added.

 

A detailed discussion on National Education Policy was also held.

 

Sarma said, 'In the discussion, representing Assam I informed about the implementation of the National Education Policy, modernization of the agriculture sector, and urbanization in the state.

 

Later in the meeting, a detailed discussion was held on Amrit Mahotsav, Har Ghar Tiranga and Urban Administration.

 

'The third meeting of the central committee which has been formed for the celebration of Azadi Ki Amrit Mahotsav across the country was held yesterday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,' said Sarma.

 

The CM also congratulated Jagdeep Dhankhar for winning the Vice Presidential election with a huge margin.

 

'I congratulate Jagdeep Dhankhar on behalf of Assam who won the Vice Presidential election with a huge margin. Recently I met him at Banga Bhawan. Today morning, the Chief Minister of Tripura had come to the Assam Bhawan and it was just a courtesy meeting, not any political meeting. I don’t think that any untoward situation will happen in Assam during the Independence Day celebration, it will be celebrated peacefully,'

 

He also wished to celebrate the country’s 75th Independence Day with a proud feeling.

 

The 7th governing council meeting of NITI Aayog chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was held at Rashtrapati Bhawan’s Cultural Centre in the national capital on Sunday.

 

The meeting was attended by Chief Ministers of the States and Union Territories, legislators, Lt Governors of UTs, Ex-Officio Members, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, Full-Time Members of NITI Aayog and Union Ministers as Special Invitees. However, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar skipped the meeting.

 

Notably, this meeting is the first in-person meeting of the Governing Council since July 2019.

 

The agenda of the NITI Aayog meeting includes crop diversification and achieving self-sufficiency in oilseeds and pulses; implementation of the National Education Policy-school education; implementation of the National Education Policy-higher education; and urban governance.

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri PiyushGoyal today said that the world now sees India as an engine of economic growth. He was addressing the gathering at the VyapariUdyamiSammelan in New Delhi today.

 

Stressing that India enjoyed the confidence of the world today, Shri Goyal said that developed countries very keen to sign trade deals with India now. He added that before 2014, Indian economy was considered to be fragile and investors had their doubts bout doing business with India.

 

Stressing upon the need for transparency and ease of doing business, the Minister assured traders and entrepreneurs that the Government will fully support traders who raise their voice against harassment by any authority.

 

He called upon traders to work with the Government to reduce compliance burden of people and businesses, but asked that they strictly follow ethical trade practices. Unnecessary, cumbersome and counter-productive laws and regulations must be uprooted to improve ease of doing business, he added.

 

He asked traders to give priority to the quality of goods and services that India offered. He also underscored the need to encourage youngsters to come forward and lend a youthful energy to India’s growth story with new ideas. The clarion call of ‘vocal for local’ given by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi must be taken up by the youth of the nation, the Minister said. He added that we must also encourage more and more women to become traders and entrepreneurs.

 

Applauding Prime Minister’s visionary welfare policies, Shri Goyal said that these policies have been helping the poor emerge as consumers and have successfully transformed India’s population into its greatest strength. He added that the Prime Minister’s tireless work had ensured that every household in the country gets access to basic amenities such as cooking gas, drinking water, electricity and toilet and every village gets access to the internet. Shri Goyal said that the policies of the government had also given every Indian the courage to be ambitious and the confidence to aspire to become entrepreneurs.

 

The Minister also emphasized that traders and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) should benefit from demand of goods by beneficiaries of the Prime Minister’s welfare schemes. He asked all traders, entrepreneurs, and businesses, both big and small, to take a collective resolve to work together to take forward the dream of a self-reliant India by promoting more and more Indian products.

The ongoing kharif sowing of all crops has crossed 900 lakh hectares (lh) to reach 908.61 lakh hectares (lh) this week. But, it is still lower by over 28 lh from 937 lh a year ago, official sources said. The Agriculture Ministry did not release the weekly update on Friday.

 

According to sources, the gap in paddy acreage, which was trailing by over 35 lh until last week from the year-ago level, has further widened to nearly 40 lh which is one of the factors for the government’s decision of not releasing the sowing data. Paddy acreage until August 5 last year was at 314.14 lh, the sources said.

 

Barring paddy, the kharif sowing of all other crops is up by 1.9 per cent at 634.32 lh from 622.51 lh a year ago, the sources said, adding that the area under paddy is down by over 12.7 per cent.

 

Maize acreage improves

Oilseeds sowing is a tad higher at 174.79 lh from 173.82 lh in which soyabean is reported to have been sown in 117.51 lh and groundnut at 41.09 lh. The acreage of coarse cereals has increased to 160.37 lh from 154.40 lh. The area under maize, however, has improved from last week, narrowing the gap to reach at 75.75 lh against 76.34 lh a year ago.

 

Cotton acreage continues to be up at 121.12 lh until Friday, from 113.50 lh a year ago. Jute and mesta sowing is marginally down at 6.92 lh against 6.94 lh and that of sugarcane at 54.67lh against 54.42 lh.

 

Last year as much as 80 per cent of the normal area (1,070 lh) got covered by end of July whereas this year the total sowing was 76 per cent of the normal 1,084.97 lh in first two months of the season. Due to the widespread distribution of rainfall, barring Uttar Pradesh ,Bihar and Jharkhand, it was possible to cover 36 per cent of normal area in last three weeks of July.

 

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted good rainfall in July in most of the States barring a few in the eastern region. However, low-pressure systems, if built, can fill the gap in deficiency in monsoon rainfall in those States, too. The country, as a whole, has received 6 per cent above normal rainfall between June 1 and August 5.

The Centre on Monday announced that the export of maida and suji will be allowed only after an inter-ministerial panel approves it, effectively restricting their shipments a month after a similar notification for atta (wheat flour) was issued.

 

Wheat product exports were 95,094 tonnes in April, valued at ?314 crore, and 1.02 lakh tonnes in May, worth ?287 crore. There is no separate category for atta, maida and suji as all are categorised as wheat or meslin flour under HS code 1101. According to trade sources, atta export in retail packs is not more than 75,000 tonnes per year as it is mostly consumed by Indians abroad.

 

The export of all items — atta, maida, semolina ( rava/sirgi), wholemeal atta and resultant atta — is subject to the recommendation of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) constituted for allowing the export of wheat, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification.

 

'Export of all the shipments approved by IMC shall be allowed subject to the issuance of Quality Certificate by Export Inspection Council (EIC) or its EIAs at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata,' DGFT said.

 

No transitional arrangement

Stating that the notification will come into effect from August 14, DGFT said a transitional arrangement shall not be applicable under this notification. It further clarified that consignments of maida and semolina will be allowed to be exported till August 14 if 'loading on the ship has commenced before this notification or handed over to the Customs before the notification and is registered in their system.

 

Necessary modalities with regard to quality of these restricted items will be notified separately, officials said.

 

'It was inevitable after the government was pointed out the error in restricting atta in place of maida,' said a trader. The jump in export of maida and other products in June and July (over 2 lakh tonnes) also one of the factors for the decision, sources said.

 

As atta permit is yet to be issued, it is difficult to say if the government will ever allow shipments of maida and semolina, traders said.

 

Wheat exports were banned in May as an unseasonal heat wave had affected the crop leading to a spike in domestic prices. While international prices of wheat have eased in recent times, no such impact has been seen in India.

The Haryana State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation (Hafed), the apex cooperative federation of Haryana, on Tuesday decided to sell more than 1,00,000 tonnes of wheat in the open market. This comes after the flour milling industry recently met the food secretary and informed him about the dwindling availability of wheat in the market.

 

The wheat Hafed has decided to sell is from grain it procured at above minimum support price (MSP) during commercial operations in the ongoing 2022-23 rabi marketing season.

 

The central government has been taking a series of measures to control food inflation ahead of the festival season of Dussehra and Diwali. Domestic wheat prices started moving up since July, as a severe heat wave cut wheat production and unregulated exports reduced domestic stocks.

 

In the meeting last week, wheat flour industry executives raised concerns about difficulty in getting wheat in the open market to keep their mills running and requested the government to sell the grain in the open market. As wheat prices did not decline even after an indirect message from the central government to traders and stockists after the meeting, the ministry put restrictions on export of refined wheat flour and suji on Monday. Whole wheat flour (atta) had already been brought under export restrictions. Thus, all the wheat products now need to get approval of a ministerial committee for exports.

 

Hafed, which used to procure about 50,000 tonnes of wheat under MSP operations, had decided to buy 2,00,000 tonnes above the MSP for exports. The agency was getting many enquiries from Indian and foreign buyers to purchase wheat as global supplies had shrunk due to the Ukraine-Russia war. From the wheat it had procured for exports, Hafed has offered 1,04,268 tonnes of Haryana and Madya Pradesh origin wheat for sale in the open market. 'We will also see the prices that buyers will be willing to pay,' said an official of Hafed.

 

The ministry of consumer affairs, through its agency National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India, has decided to buy 2,000 tonnes of imported urad, whose prices have increased about 15% in the last six weeks.

The FSSAI has decided to use Aadhar number as identity document for the purpose of availing of services offered by the food authority.

 

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, notified that a citizen is required to undergo Aadhaar authentication for the services offered by FSSAI. The Ministry has said that it was done for the purpose of usage of digital platforms to ensure good governance.

 

The services for which a citizen requires to undergo Aadhaar authentication through FSSAI include- a. Registration and Licensing of Food Business Operators (FBOs); b. Inspection of Food Business Operators (FBOs); and c. Verification of candidates while attending various training and certification programs conducted by FSSAI.

 

However, this notification shall come into effect from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette.

 

According to the FSSAI, the Aadhar would help in ease of doing business wherein authentication of identities will be done in a seamless manner and will reduce over documentation.

 

'Use of Aadhaar as identity document simplifies the Government delivery processes, brings in transparency and efficiency, and enables applicants to get their work done directly in a convenient seamless manner, and Aadhaar obviates the need for producing multiple documents to prove one's identity,' reads a FSSAI statement.

 

Further, the statement added that according to the Aadhaar Act, the Central Government may allow Aadhaar authentication on a voluntary basis by requesting entities, in the interest of good governance, promoting ease of living of residents and enabling better access to services for them.

Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University (HPAU), Palampur, is aiming to get geographical indication (GI) tag for various kidney beans, locally called Rajmash, a variety grown in Himachal Pradesh.

 

HPAU vice-chancellor Prof Harinder Kumar Chaudhary said the university has identified 368 landraces of rajmash from Kukumseri located in cold desert of Lahaul and Spiti, and remote parts of Kinnaur, Kullu, Mandi and Chamba districts.

 

These areas are called the hotspot of rajmash cultivation.

 

'The HPAU evaluated, purified, characterised and developed a popular variety, Triloki Rajmash, following the pure line selection method of breeding,' said Prof Chaudhary.

 

He said that with the help of Himachal Pradesh Council for Science, Technology and Environment, HPAU has started the process to get GI tag for the rajmash landraces of Himachal.

Contrary to popular belief, protecting agriculture against the adverse impacts of climate change is not a very costly proposition. Scientists at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) have conducted a pilot in the rain-fed districts of Telangana and called for promoting climate-smart villages (CSV) to ensure sustainable agricultural production by building resilience to climate change.

 

The project helped prioritise climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices for 8,000 farm households in Mahabubnagar district and the organisation has proposed a framework to apply the climate-smart village approach to other parts of the State.

 

It is about prioritising the spending based on policies on science and making investments that are important to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change. 'It won’t cost the exchequer a great deal of additional investment. It is about prioritising the investments on appropriate technologies in a context-specific manner, building farmers’ capacity and incentives for adaptation,' Shalander Kumar, Deputy Global Program Director at Icrisat, told BusinessLine.

 

A team of experts from the Icrisat has done a pilot project on ‘scaling up climate-smart agriculture in the Telangana’ to highlight the importance of CSA in the rainfed farming systems.

 

He said that rainfed farming systems in Telangana were increasingly affected by high climate variability. 'The current efforts to address this challenge are not unified. It’s important to imbibe a climate lens in all agricultural development plans and strategies. Science- policy interface, backed by data and analysis, and sensitisation of all stakeholders is the key to mainstream CSA into development planning action,' he said.

 

'Funds and subsidies are available to buy machines and other farm equipment. It is about what machinery and equipment to buy. It is about prioritisation,' he said.

 

After gathering information, the team conducted a climate risk analysis and implemented a multi-stakeholder participatory prioritisation of CSA practices. 'This approach has the potential to be replicated across India and beyond,' Shalander Kumar said.

 

In order to improve the effectiveness of CSA practices, the team has done a climate exposure (or climate risk) assessment for baseline and mid-century climate conditions was carried out.

 

Division into grids

After dividing Telangana into 350 grids representing mandals, the team collected information on temperature changes, heat and cold wave events, rainfall variability and changes in the frequency or intensity of consecutive dry and wet days.

 

Using the information, the team created maps to highlight the ‘hotspots’ or mandals at higher climate risk. These hotspots would require immediate attention.

 

'This long-term climate analysis indicates high to very high climate risk in almost all the mandals in Nalgonda, Adilabad, Yadadri and Nagarkurnool districts,' the report said. 'It is important that the climate smart and sustainable agriculture strategies become integral to the development and agricultural action plan from village to national level,' Shalander Kumar pointed out.

 

During past few years, sugar production in the country has been consistently more than the domestic consumption thereby creating surplus situation. With a view to address the problem of surplus sugar in the country, the Central Government has been encouraging sugar mills during the last few sugar seasons to divert surplus sugar to ethanol and is also facilitating mills to export surplus sugar thereby improving liquidity of sugar mills enabling them to clear cane price dues of farmers. Export of sugar and diversion of sugar to ethanol during the recent times has also helped in maintaining demand-supply balance and stabilizing domestic sugar prices. Details of sugar export and diversion of sugar to ethanol since sugar season 2018-19 (October-September) are as under:

 

Sugar Season	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22
Diversion of sugar to Ethanol	3	9	22	35
Exports	38	59	70	100 (as on 01.08.2022)

 

 

In view of the macro scenario going across the globe, any uncontrolled export from India beyond the comfortable limit could have created scarcity; and local prices could spike during the period of September-November, 2022. The government is also concerned about food inflation. Therefore, with a view to ensure sufficient availability of sugar for domestic consumption within the country at reasonable price, Government in May, 2022 has imposed restrictions on export of sugar beyond 100 LMT; and exporters as well as sugar mills were issued Export Release Orders (EROs) upto 10 LMT for export in June, 2022. As on 01.08.2022, about 100 LMT has been exported.

 

However, there have been changes in the stock position of sugar since the time of imposition of restrictions in May, 2022, like increase in sugar production and decrease in sugar consumption due to weak demand of sugar in domestic market. Crushing of sugarcane generally commence by end of October or 1st week of November; however, in the ensuing sugar season 2022-23 due to sufficient availability of sugarcane, crushing of cane is likely to commence in 1st to 3rd week of Oct, 2022; and new sugar would start coming in the market from mid of October, 2022. Thus, opening stocks of 60 LMT in the ensuing sugar season would be sufficient to keep the domestic prices under control.

 

Therefore, the position was reviewed by the Government in last week of July, 2022 and it has been decided to allow export of sugar upto 112 LMT in the interest of sugarcane farmers and sugar industry. Even after export of sugar upto 112 LMT, closing stock of 60 LMT would be maintained & as crushing in Maharashtra, Karnataka and other states would commence from 1st to 3rd week of October, 2022; there would be sufficient availability of sugar in the country at reasonable price & retail price would likely to remain stable.

 

Export of sugar of 100 LMT till 1.08.2022 in the current sugar season has helped in improving liquidity of sugar mills by Rs. 33,000 Crore enabling them to clear cane price dues of farmers. Further export of sugar of 12 LMT would help in improving liquidity of sugar mills by Rs. 3600 Crore enabling them to clear cane price dues of farmers which stood around Rs. 9700 Crore as on 04.08.2022. Export of sugar to this extent would also help in earning foreign exchange and would help in reducing trade deficit.