Nod for 100 cr estimates to give fillip to agri export policy

Hyderabad: State Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar on Wednesday said the allocation of Rs 100 crore under the budget estimates for 2021-22 would give a fillip to the policy of agriculture exports.

He was speaking in a workshop on 'Export Potential of Agricultural Commodities in India with reference to Telangana' here. On export potential of TS agri commodities, Kumar said export of rice, maize, red chilli, Bengal gram, cotton and other commodities was hampered by issues like lack of technical guidance to farmers and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS) of the produce.

"Apart from these inadequate facilities for analysis of pesticide residues, lack of awareness on cost‐effective production and proper infrastructure like storage, processing, information about export prices were some of the problems faced by farmers in Telangana; they should be addressed on prioritized basis", he stated. Kumar said agri exports would play a pivotal role in realising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of doubling farmers' income. In order to achieve this efforts to implement the Agriculture Export Policy (AEP) would continue. The AEP scheme received a budget allocation of Rs. 100 crore under BE-2021‐22, which should provide a fillip to the policy.