India, with a large and diverse agriculture, is among the world's leading producer of cereals, milk, sugar, fruits and vegetables, spices, eggs and seafood products. Indian agriculture continues to be the backbone of our society and it provides livelihood to nearly 58% per cent of our population. India is supporting 17.84 per cent of world's population, 15% of livestock population with merely 2.4 per cent of world's land and

4 per cent water resources. Hence, continuous innovation and efforts towards productivity, pre & post-harvest management, processing and value-addition, use of technology and infrastructure creation is an imperative for Indian agriculture. Various studies on fresh fruits and vegetables, fisheries in India have indicated a loss percentage ranging from about 8% to 18% on account of poor post-harvest management, absence of cold chain and processing facilities. Therefore, agro processing and agricultural exports are a key area and it is a matter of satisfaction that India's role in global export of agricultural products is steadily increasing. India is currently ranked tenth amongst the major exporters globally as per WTO trade data for 2019. India's share in global exports of agriculture products has increased from 1.7% a few years ago, to 2.1% in 2019.

Recent growth rates show that agri-food production is rising faster than growth in domestic demand, and volume of surplus for export is witnessing accelerated growth. This offers scope and opportunity for capturing overseas markets to earn foreign exchange and enable producers to earn higher prices for farm produce.

A dynamic nation of 1.3 billion consumers with rising discretionary incomes, changing food patterns, vast farming area, diverse agriculture and a large population dependent on agriculture has propelled India to the world's center stage as a big consumer market and also as a key supplier of food products. It has often been suggested that an essential element of "Make in India" has to be "Bake in India", i.e. a renewed focus on value addition and on processed agricultural products. The rapidly growing global population and shrinking farmlands, coupled with changing socio-economic, agro- climatic and dietary patterns, have challenged scientists and policymakers to reconsider how we grow and feed 7.5 billion global citizens. India's quest, then, is to grow sustainably, trade abundantly and progress harmoniously. Agriculture export, if properly supported by infrastructure, institutional back up, packaging, freight transport and connected to the internal production system backed by market access will be in a position to transform the agricultural economy.

Challenges, however, are aplenty; from low farm productivity to poor infrastructure to global price volatility to market access. The vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to double farmer's income by 2022 would require a series of interventions to improve production and productivity, better price realization for farm produce, along with economizing the cost of production. There has been a long felt need for a dedicated agricultural export policy in India.

The need for a dedicated policy under Department of Commerce (DoC) overarching umbrella arises due to the federal and administrative structure of the Union and State government. While the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmer Welfare (DAC&FW) and Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries (DAHDF) focus on production, pre-harvest and boosting farmer income, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) focuses on value addition, post-harvest losses and employment generation. The DoC, on the other hand, is focused on foreign trade across sectors. There is an increasing need for the Government of India to establish a stable and predictable Agriculture Export Policy which aims at reinvigorating the entire value chain from export oriented farm production and processing to transportation, infrastructure and market access. The Agriculture Export Policy has to be dovetailed with existing framework for agriculture and surplus agricultural produce. There is a symbiotic relationship between a framework for sustainable agriculture on the one hand and a viable Agriculture Export Policy on the other. There is a need to craft a policy that will deliver incomes into the pockets of farmer through crucial export opportunities.

The Agriculture Export Policy is framed with a focus on agriculture export oriented production, export promotion, better farmer realization and synchronization within policies and programmes of Government of India. It is required to have a "Farmers' Centric Approach" for improved income through value addition at source itself which will help to minimize losses across the value chain. India needs to have farmer oriented strategy to achieve the twin objective of food security and a prominent agriculture exporter of the world. The policy will also give a big push to food processing/manufacturing to have much higher growth in food production which will increase India's share of value added processed products in its Agriculture export basket at the global level. The broad objectives and vision is highlighted below.

• To double agricultural exports from present ~US$ 30+ Billion to ~US$ 60+ Billion by 2022 and reach US$ 100 Billion in the next few years thereafter, with a stable trade policy regime.
• To diversify our export basket, destinations and boost high value and value added agricultural exports including focus on perishables.
• To promote novel, indigenous, organic, ethnic, traditional and non-traditional Agri products exports.
• To provide an institutional mechanism for pursuing market access, tackling barriers and deal with sanitary and phytosanitary issues.
• To strive to double India's share in world agri exports by integrating with global value chain at the earliest.
• Enable farmers to get benefit of export opportunities in overseas market.

Harness export potential of Indian agriculture, through suitable policy instruments, to make India global power in agriculture and raise farmers income.