In 2018-19, India exported marine products worth USD 6.8 billion (1.39 million tonnes) and the total fish production in the country was approximately 13.34 million tonnes with an increase of about 6% over the previous year’s production (12.59 million tonnes in 2017-18) and 1.1% in export quantity (1.37 million tonnes). Hence, there is a potential for the export of fishery products from India.
With regard to the dairy sector, India ranked first in milk production with 176.35 million metric tonnes in FY 2017-18. During 2018-19, India’s export of milk and milk products was Rs. 2423 crore which is about 1% of world export. Hence, there is a potential for growth in Indian dairy products export also.
The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) promotes cluster farming of aquaculture in all the maritime states and has formed 918 aquaculture farming societies involving 19,854 farmers. The district wise details of such societies is given as Annexure-I. Through these societies, MPEDA provides technical and financial assistance to promote sustainable aquaculture and increase the aquaculture production. The farmers of these societies are encouraged to follow Better Management Practices (BMPs) for ensuring disease free production.
With regard to the promotion of dairy products exports, Mathura District in Uttar Pradesh and Banaskantha in Gujarat have been identified as clusters for dairy products.
Some countries have shown interest in investing in the agriculture sector of India. The foreign investment in the agriculture services sector in last 3 years has been about USD 283.5 million. Out of this, investment in fisheries sector is USD 3.8 million and in the dairy sector is USD1.94 million.
The steps taken to implement the Agriculture Export Policy are given at Annexure – II. Since the Policy was announced in December 2018 and it is in the initial stage of implementation, no impact assessment of policy on the states has been done so far.
With regard to the Fisheries Sector, the Government through Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) has undertaken certain proactive measures whose details have been mentioned at Annexure-III. With regard to theDairy Sector, the Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying has been implementing the following Dairy Development Schemes which aim at benefitting the farmers through creation of dairy processing and marketing infrastructure across the country:
