Importance of agri exports

• India’s agriculture exports have grown 16.5% year-on-year in April-September, and look set to surpass the record $50.2 billion achieved in 2021-22 (April-March).
• Interestingly, even commodities whose exports have been subjected to curbs — wheat, rice and sugar — have shown impressive jumps in shipments.

Growth Despite curbs

• Wheat Exports: At 45.90 lakh tonnes (lt) during the April-September period, were nearly twice the 23.76 lt for the same period last year.
• Sugar Exports: Total exports for the 2021-22 sugar year (October-September) were capped at 100 lt.
• Non-basmati exports: Risen from 82.26 lt in April-September 2021 to 89.57 lt in April-September 2022,
• Basmati rice (from 19.46 lt to 21.57 lt).

Surging imports as well

• In data from 2021-22, one can see, registered both record exports ($50.2 billion) as well as imports ($32.4 billion).
• The resultant surplus of $17.8 billion was much below the $27.7 billion surplus in the previous all-time-high export year of 2013-14.
• The first six months of the current fiscal have seen the surplus narrow further, albeit marginally — the reason being imports grew at a faster rate (27.7%) than exports (16.5%).
• India’s deficit in its overall merchandise trade account widened from $76.25 billion in April-September 2021 to $146.55 billion in April-September this year.
• During the same period, the surplus in agriculture trade reduced only a tad, from $7.86 billion to $7.46 billion.

Trends in composition of trade

• As many as 15 of export items individually grossed more than $1 billion in revenue during 2021-22.
• All barring two (cotton and spices) have posted positive growth in the first half of the current fiscal too.
• In cotton, not only have exports collapsed from over $1.1 billion in April-September 2021 to $436 million in April-September 2022, imports have soared from below $300 million to $1.1 billion.

The big import: vegetable oils

• Almost 60% of India’s total agri imports is accounted for by a single commodity: vegetable oils.
• Their imports were valued at a massive $19 billion in 2021-22, and imports have increased by more than 25% in the first half of this fiscal.
• Vegetable oils are today the country’s fifth biggest import item after petroleum, electronics, gold, and coal.
• Reasons:
• Raising of the minimum support price of mustard from Rs 5,050 to Rs 5,450 per quintal for the 2022-23 crop season.
• clearance for commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) hybrid mustard.
• Seed yields from the transgenic mustard DMH-11, bred by Delhi University scientists, are claimed to be 25-30% more than from currently-grown popular varieties.

Conclusion

• A similar approach, aimed at boosting domestic output and yields, may be required in cotton.
• Insect pest-resistant GM Bt technology helped nearly treble India’s cotton production from 140 lakh bales in 2000-01 to 398 lakh bales in 2013-14, and exports to peak at $4.33 billion in 2011-12.
• Production has since been falling, touching a 12-year low in 2021-22, even as India has turned a net importer.
• It attests to the importance of focusing on domestic production and productivity, while not blocking technologies that enable these.