APEDA joins hand with ICAR-IIMR to increase export of agri items and farmer’s income

New Delhi, Sept 3: Two of the leading agriculture institutes in the country on Friday joined hands to increase the export of agriculture items through market linkages and boost farmers income.

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) inked an MoU with ICAR-Indian Institute of Millet Research (ICAR-IIMR) to promote commercial cultivation of processable varieties developed by ICAR-IIMR for exports, said a government statement. The development is also expected to promote the value addition of millets.

A joint coordination committee has also been proposed under the MoU with representatives from APEDA and ICAR-IIMR to create market linkages with farmers, understanding the market and consumer preferences, regulation of trade policies, among others.

“Both the organizations would jointly develop an export strategy and accordingly conduct training programme for the existing millet processors and entrepreneurs on various export policies and schemes for increasing exports of millets,”  the government statement said.

Profiling of millets growers or farmers in all major millets growing regions of the country and strengthening of the seed supply chain would be taken up by ICAR-IIMR.

The MoU comes against the backdrop of the United Nations General Assembly passing a resolution to celebrate the International Year of Millets (IYM) in 2023.