The Government maintains continuous oversight over the country’s import and export activities and revises trade policies as necessary to safeguard domestic interests.For essential agricultural commodities, there is an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) including Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare as a member, which keeps a close and regular watch on essential agricultural commodities, analyzing factors that affect their availability and market conditions. It also monitors any rise in imports to quickly identify trends that may influence domestic production, trade, or food security. To protect the interests of farmers and reduce unnecessary imports, the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) reviews the import of agricultural commodities and, when required, recommends measures such as import duties or port restrictions to the concerned Ministry/Department. Further, Government supports farmers through several ongoing schemes and interventions, including:

• Market intervention through procurement under Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism for notified crops;
• Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) operations for essential commodities such as onions to manage volatility;
• Market intelligence and buffer stocking operations by Central agencies; and
• Input and income support schemes, such as PM-KISAN, to cushion income fluctuations.

These measures collectively aim to mitigate adverse impacts on farmers arising from market disruptions.

            Department of Commerce through the Agricultural and Processed food products Export Development Authority (APEDA) provides financial assistance to its member exporters including, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) from across the country underfinancial Assistance Scheme (FAS).

Specifically with respect to linking farmers to global markets, APEDA provides financial assistance for implementation and certification of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) through its registered exporters to enable them to meet the requirements of the importing countries with respect to the quality standards designated by them.

In addition to this, around 1080 of capacity building/training programs have been carried out during 2025-26, across India, in association with the concerned State government agencies, with a specific focus for exporters including FPOs/FPCs/SHGs in order to provide linkage of the farmer groups to export supply chain and to promote the entrepreneurs for becoming prospective exporters.

Finally, APEDA organized participation of its member exporters including FPO’s and FPC’s in major international food exhibitions and buyer seller meets held abroad and in India like World Food India, Indus Food, AAHAR in India and Gulf Food etc.

This information was given by Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Ramnath Thakur in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

*****

RC/AR/DK

(रिलीज़ आईडी: 2206722) आगंतुक पटल : 177