Without new mkts, doubling agri production will halve farmers'

As India looks to boost farmers' income, Union minister Suresh Prabhu has said that doubling production without expanding to new markets would halve farmers' earnings.
The commerce and industry minister said the government is focusing on increasing exports of agricultural products in order to achieve the target to double farmers' income by 2022.
"To realise our Hon'ble Prime Minister's vision of doubling farmers' income while artificial intelligence and tech is one pillar, I am committed to another pillar which is expanding the exports of agricultural products.
"This is important because unless we find new markets, doubling production would halve the incomes," he tweeted after chairing a roundtable session on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit here.

Prabhu said there is a unique problem where farmers' income is restricted by practices and circumstances on which he has minimal control, "be of input costs or output pricing".
"We in the government are working hard to resolve these issues, which will unleash the power of Indian agriculture," he noted.

Prabhu had discussions with his Australian counterpart Steven Ciobo.
"We agreed on a novel idea of Australian investments in supply chain and warehousing in India to spurt agricultural growth in the country," Prabhu said in another tweet.
Besides, the minister said that both of them reiterated their commitment to the WTO and agreed that reforms are necessary and ways need to evolve to not forget the old issues and incorporate new issues.

He also had an interaction with Bernd Leukert, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE Products and Innovation about the company's engagement in India's Startup and Industry 4.0 programmes.
Among others, the commerce and industry minister met MKS PAMP Group Chairman Marwan Shakarchi and discussed the progress of MMTC PAMP India projects.
Prabhu, along with his ministerial colleagues Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan, also met WEF Founder Klaus Schwab.
"He (Schwab) expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Modi for having graced the occasion which he said was hugely received by the global audience," Prabhu said in another tweet.
Separately, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted that he discussed how technical cooperation between India and Switzerland can help the railways become the growth engine of the nation's "Vikas Yatra".

Goyal also met Hewlett Packard Enterprise Pointnext President Ana Pinczuk.
Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan interacted with his UAE counterpart Suhail Al Mazroui and tweeted that both sides have been holding regular exchanges to invest in each other's oil infrastructure.
"As always interesting meeting with CEO, BP Bob Dudley; exchanged ideas on global developments in energy sector, EVs, renewables," Pradhan said in a tweet.
Besides, Pradhan tweeted that he met noted energy expert Daniel Yergin and exchanged views on recent price rise in crude prices and other developments in the oil sector.