Aiming to give a boost to the export value chain, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Research Development Corporation (NRDC).

The MoU has been inked for utilizing both the organizations’ expertise by working together to synergize the activities in the interest of agriculture and allied sectors for bringing better value to the stakeholders. The MoU has been signed for the implementation of the Agri Export Policy   and to strengthen the export value chain.

The MoU’s mandate is to infuse and disseminate technologies jointly with APEDA in the areas of climate-resilient agriculture related to zero carbon emission farming to produce residue/carbon-free food for exports.

As per the MoU document, both the organizations will cooperate in collaborative projects for the commercialization of embedded technology related to agri and food processing at various levels of the value chain for boosting the export of agri products.

The key areas of cooperation include developing and improvising farm machinery for low cost, user-friendly and energy-efficient tools for small scale farmers, promoting and supporting Agri Start-ups associated with the NRDC Incubation Centre (NRDCIC) for engagement in agri-exports and strengthening of the Startup ecosystem and nomination of expert resources of NRDC/APEDA for mutual knowledge sharing.

The MoU was signed by Secretary APEDA, and NRDC CMD Commodore (Rtd) Amit Rastogi in the presence of APEDA Chairman Dr. M. Angamuthu, IAS at APEDA head office in New Delhi.

NRDC is an enterprise of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India and it was established in 1953 with the primary objective to promote, develop and commercialize the technologies, know-how, inventions, and patents.

APEDA has been focusing on a collaborative approach to bring synergy with a number of organizations and institutions having inherent professional and specialized expertise in different areas. The prospective sectors of collaboration include capacity building of various stakeholders and providing solutions for addressing some of the identified interventions for the development of Agriculture and its export enhancement in consonance with the objectives set under Agri Export Policy (AEP) announced by Government of India in 2018.

The AEP was framed with a focus on agriculture export-oriented production, export promotion, better price realization to farmers and synchronization within policies and programmes of the Government of India. It focuses on the “Farmers’ Centric Approach” for improved income through value addition at the source itself to help minimize losses across the value chain.

The policy also focuses on adopting the approach of developing product-specific clusters in different agro-climatic zones of the country to help in dealing with various supply-side issues viz., soil nutrients management, higher productivity, adoption of a market-oriented variety of crop, use of good agriculture practices, etc.

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AM/PK/MS