The Union Government has included Odisha in the National Rice Export Promotion Forum after the State has started exporting non-basmati rice to foreign countries.
Odisha is exporting non-basmati rice to Vietnam through the Paradip Port and has huge potentials to export to other countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Senegal, Malaysia and Iraq, officials here said.
While the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has been promoting rice exports through collaborations with various stakeholders in the value chains, the Union Government has set up the Rice Export Promotion Forum (REPF) under the aegis of the APEDA.
The REPF has representatives from rice industry, exporters, officials from APEDA, Ministry of Commerce and Directors of Agriculture from major rice producing States, including Odisha, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Chhattisgarh.
For boosting the exports of aromatic and long-grain basmati rice, the APEDA’s Basmati Export Development Foundation (BEDF) has taken innovative steps to sensitise farmers involved in the cultivation of Basmati rice in the key growing regions about adoption of good agricultural practices.
As part of the initiatives, the BEDF in collaboration with the rice exporters associations of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi, State agriculture universities and State agriculture departments has organised 75 awareness and training programmes to encourage farmers for growing high-quality basmati rice in the seven States.
The farmers have been requested to get themselves registered on basmati.net through the State agriculture departments.