The Fifteenth Finance Commission has decided to constitute a High Level Expert Group on Agriculture Exports in pursuance of its ToR   i.e, to recommend measurable performance incentives for States to encourage ari exports as well as to promote crops to enable high import substitution.  The composition of the group is as below:

1. Shri Sanjiv Puri, Chairman and Managing Director, ITC  - Chairman
2. Ms. Radha Singh, Former Agriculture Secretary – Member.
3. Representative of Ministry of Food Processing Industries – Member.
4. Chairman, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce and Industry – Member.
5. Shri Suresh Narayanan, CMD, NESTLE India – Member.
6. Mr. Jay Shroff, CEO-UPL Limited – Member.
7. Shri Sanjay Sacheti, Country Head India-Olam Agro India Ltd. – Member.
8. Dr. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, RIS – Member.

The Terms of Reference of the Committee are :

• To assess export & import substitution opportunities for Indian agricultural products (commodities, semi processed and processed) in the changing international trade scenario and suggest ways to step up exports sustainably and reduce import dependence.
• To recommend strategies and measures to increase farm productivity, enable higher value addition, ensure waste reduction, strengthen logistics infrastructure etc. related to Indian agriculture, to improve the sector’s global competitiveness.
• To identify the impediments for private sector investments along the agricultural value chain and suggest policy measures and reforms that would help attract the required investments.
• To suggest appropriate performance-based incentives to the state governments for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26, to accelerate reforms in the agriculture sector as well as implement other policy measures in this regard.

The Committee can seek assistance of any other institution or entity as considered appropriate for completion of the work.  The Committee will submit its recommendations within three months for further consideration of the Commission.

Performance-based incentives to states to boost agricultural exports and import substitution, with expert group proposing reforms. The Finance Commission constituted a High Level Expert Group on Agriculture Exports to assess export and import substitution opportunities across agricultural commodities and to recommend ways to sustainably step up exports. It must propose strategies to increase productivity, enable higher value addition, reduce waste, strengthen logistics, identify impediments to private investment along the value chain and suggest reforms, and recommend performance-based incentives for state governments for 2021-22 to 2025-26; the Group may seek external assistance and will report within three months.