Vijay Raghavan, the government’s Principal Scientific Adviser, has advised domestic exporters to focus on the quality of agricultural products, citing this as the country’s biggest challenge for exporters in the sector.
Quality, regulation, and market analysis are critical in agricultural, horticulture, and fisheries exports, he said at FIEO’s (Federation on Indian Export Organisations) two-day virtual orientation workshop on R&D exports, which concluded on August 12.
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‘The Principal Scientific Adviser emphasized the importance of focusing on agricultural product quality, as this is still the biggest challenge agricultural exporters face in our country,’ FIEO said in a statement, quoting Raghavan.
According to the adviser, global trade in Research and Development (R&D) services will reach USD 339 billion in 2020. Exports totaled USD 167 billion, and India has enormous capability in this sector.
‘There is a need to look at agriculture in a traditional way, while also focusing on becoming an ‘IT Agri Nation’ by analyzing data on climate change, plant growth, exports, and so on,’ he added.
According to FIEO President A Sakthivel, R&D investment is critical for the country’s economic growth.
‘The promotion and impact of growth in the R&D services sector lead to increased employment, innovation, quality enhancement, productivity, and exports.’
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‘India needs to increase investment in R&D, which is currently 0.7 percent of GDP, which is much lower than the expenditure made on R&D by many countries such as the United States (2.8 percent of GDP), China (2.1 percent), and Israel (4.3%),’ Sakthivel said.
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