An Indian farmer carries paddy seedlings for planting in his agricultural field. (BIJU BORO/AFP/Getty Images)The export of agriculture and allied commodities during April 2020 to February 2021 were Rs 2.74 lakh crore as compared to Rs 2.31 crore in the same period last year, indicating an increase of 18.49 per cent.
The commodities displaying significant positive growth in exports were wheat, other Cereals, rice (other than basmati), soya meal, spices, sugar, raw cotton, fresh vegetable, processed vegetables etc.
Wheat posted a huge growth of 727 per cent over last year, increasing from Rs 425 crore to Rs 3,283 crore, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare announced in a press release on Wednesday (21 April).
National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED) has exported 50,000 MT wheat to Afghanistan and 40,000 MT wheat to Lebanon under the G2G arrangement.
Export of non-basmati rice has gone up from Rs 13,030 crores in 2019-20 to Rs 30,277 crores in 2020-21, a growth of 132 per cent while exports of soya meal has gone up from Rs 3087 crores in 2019-20 to Rs 7224 crores in 2020-21 a 134 per cent growth.
The imports of agro and allied commodities during April 2020 to February 2021 were Rs 1,41,034 crore as compared to Rs 1,37,014 crore in the same period last year witnessing a slight increase of 2.93 per cent.
Despite Covid-19, the balance of trade in agriculture has favourably increased during April 2020 – February 2021 to Rs 1,32,579 crore as against Rs 93,907 crore during the same period in 2019-20, a growth of 29.16 per cent.
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