21/06/2021 - Agriculture

Review please

KEY POINTS

·        Agri-exports touched $41.8 billion in FY 2020-21, registering a growth of 18 per cent over the previous year.

·        Rice and sugar are well-known water guzzlers. They are heavily subsidised through cheap/free power for irrigation as well as fertilisers, especially urea.

·        The biggest concern with surging rice and sugar exports from India is on the sustainability front.

·        It is well known that a kg of sugar has a virtual water intake of about 2,000 litres. In 2020-21, India exported 7.5 million tonnes of sugar, implying that at least 15 billion cubic metres of water was exported through sugar alone.

·        Farming practices such as alternate wetting drying (AWD), direct-seeded rice (DSR) and micro-irrigation will have to be taken up on a war footing.

·        Indian agriculture was most globally integrated, with agri-trade (exports plus imports) touching 20 per cent of the agri-GDP.

·        It has slid to 13.5 per cent by FY2020-21, indicating India is becoming less globally competitive in exports and more protectionist in imports, presumably in the name of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

·        It is high time that policymakers revisit the entire gamut of rice and sugar systems from their MSP/FRP to their production in an environmentally sustainable manner.

·        An export-led strategy also needs to minimise logistics costs by investing in better infrastructure and logistics. 

kindly review and provide suggestions

Please review mam/sir 

Thanks.

Kindly review.Thank you