Agricultural sector is the mainstay of the rural Indian economy around, which the socio-economic privileges and deprivations revolve, and any change in its structure is expected to have a corresponding impact on the existing pattern of social equality. The growths of India's agriculture sector during the 60 years of independence remain impressive at 2.7% per annum. About two-third of this production growth is aided by gains in crop productivity. The need based strategies adopted since independence and intensified after mid - sixties primarily focused on feeding the growing population and making the country self depend in food production.
Export is a combination of numerous activities like "Indian Agriculture Exporter". It starts from the farm and ends up till it reaches the ultimate consumer. Each steps of the process requires intervention of various agencies. Entrepreneurs depend upon these agencies to get their job done. Jobs may be related to the sourcing of seeds, harvesting / thrashing, storages, packaging & labeling, cold storages, water treatment / softening plant, interaction with Govt. agencies, lifting of goods, goods clearance at the departure point and receiving at the importers end. The integration of the job work at all stages finally ends up with an export order. There are service providers who may extend their services at all levels and few may have expertise in specialized fields.
They are the private agencies, who are established and into the business of providing the basic necessities to anyone expecting service in their related fields. Regular update is done to accommodate more and more new comers in the field of services.
Indian agriculture has attained an impressive growth in the production of food grains that has increased around four times during the planned area of development from 51 million tons in 1950-51 to 199.1 million tons in 1997-98. The growth has been really striking since sixties after the production and wide spread usage of high yielding varieties of seed, fertilization, pesticides, especially in assured irrigated areas.
From time immemorial India has been known as the Land of Spices. The Chinese, Arabs and The Europeans came to the Indian shores lured by the spices grown here. Pepper, ginger, turmeric and cardamom are the most renowned of Indian spices. We earn Rs. 1612 crores from the export of spices annually (2000-0 I). The world consumption of spices is growing steadily year by year. Expansion of our export of spices to increase or even to retain our share of world market is imperative. This can be achieved only through increased productivity and improved quality.
The developed countries give top priority to the health of their citizens. The laws with respect to items of food are meant to protect the consumers from food of inferior quality, or those which are likely to be contaminated by impurities or poisonous substances. Therefore any food item that we export, be it marine products, cashews, pepper, cardamom or ginger, it is important that the product conforms to the quality standards demanded by the importing country. In the context of thousands of people getting infected with food borne diseases or even dying of food poisoning, it is only just and reasonable that countries which depend on imported food stuffs should take such extreme precautions. Food materials that have become rotten, spoiled, infected with micro-organisms or contaminated by other impurities are either destroyed by the import inspection authorities or sent back to the exporting country. This not only results in loss of market but also damages the exporting country's reputation.
The quality of any commodity depends upon the inputs used and the practices adopted in its cultivation, processing, packing, storing and transportation. In the case of agriculture products, therefore, constant care right from the pre-harvest operation till the product reaches the consumers becomes imperative. The following are the important points to be remembered at the various stages.
