Budget must focus on farm exports: India Crop Care chief

The Crop Care Federation of India has urged the Centre to focus on increasing the country’s agriculture exports by facilitating and providing specific incentives rather than allocating funds to boost production.

In the last four years, agriculture exports have fallen 18 per cent to $32 billion in FY17 from $39 billion in FY14. In contrast, imports in the same period have increased 60 per cent to $24 billion from $15 billion.

Rajju Shroff, President, Crop Care Federation of India, said when European countries stop Indian basmati imports over presence of high pesticides which are not even registered there, India should do the same to their olive oil citing the same reasons. The European Union uses 3.90 lakh tonnes of pesticides which are mostly not registered here. On the other hand, India uses 60,000 tonnes of pesticides. In other words, India uses one sixth of pesticides used by EU, said Shroff, who is Chairman of United Phosphorus of India, .

The global export market for agriculture produce is worth about $1,600 billion. India is second in agriculture production in the world but is ranked eighth in exports, well behind Thailand and Indonesia, said Shroff.

“India is definitely price competitive in the global market, but not trade competitive because of questionable policies and politics of developed economies,” said S Ganesan, Advisor, Crop Care Federation.