Domestic exporters should focus on quality of agricultural products: Vijay Raghavan

Principal Scientific Adviser to the government Vijay Raghavan has suggested domestic exporters to focus on quality of agricultural products as this was still the biggest challenge for the exporters of the sector in the country. Quality, regulation and market analysis are of vital importance in exports of agriculture, horticulture and fisheries, he said at FIEO’s (Federation on Indian Export Organisations) two-day virtual orientation workshop on R&D exports, concluded on August 12.

“The Principal Scientific Adviser stressed on the need to focus on quality of agricultural products, as this was still the biggest challenge agricultural exporters face in our country,” FIEO said in a statement quoting Raghavan. The adviser also said the global trade in R&D (research and development) services reached USD 339 billion in 2020. Out of this, exports stood at USD 167 billion, and India has got enormous capability in the sector.

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“There is a need to look into agriculture in classical way along with the added focus on becoming ‘IT Agri Nation’ by analysing the data of climate change, plant growth, exports, etc,” he added. FIEO President A Sakthivel said investment in R&D is important for the economic growth of the country. “Promotion and impact of growth in the R&D services sector lead to growth in employment, innovation, quality enhancement, productivity and exports.

“India needs to scale up investment in R&D, which currently is 0.7 per cent of our GDP, which is much below the expenditure made towards R&D by many countries like the US (2.8 per cent of GDP), China (2.1 per cent), and Israel (4.3 per cent),” Sakthivel said.