By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, DEC 03, 2020: THE Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) signed an MoU with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to utilise their expertise and work together in the interest of agriculture and allied sectors.

APEDA has been engaged with state governments and institutions to collaborate with experts in different areas for capacity building of various stakeholders and providing solutions for addressing some of the identified interventions for the development of agriculture and its export enhancement.

They are promoting the objectives of the Agriculture Export Policy which focuses on a farmers'centric approach for improved income through value addition at source itself to help minimize losses across the value chain. Nodal agencies and monitoring committees are being set up to develop product specific clusters in different agro climatic zones of the country to help in dealing with various supply side issues such as soil nutrients management, higher productivity, adoption of market oriented variety of crop, and use of good agriculture practices.

APEDA and NABARD will jointly work towards capacity development of various stakeholders as the bank has various schemes and programmes to assist farmers.

They will jointly organise outreach programs, awareness programs and workshops for stakeholders while informing them of various relevant schemes and initiatives.APEDA will also formulate programmes in association with NABARD to provide technical knowhow to cooperatives and farmer producer organisations (FPOs).