Mar 31:As per existing guidelines, some of the activities under agriculture and tourism-based enterprises are already covered in the ambit of the MSME sector. Activities under these two categories, for which Udyam Registration (UR) is allowed, are given in the dropdown menu of the UR portal. Agriculture based activities such as Preparation of crops for the primary market i.e. cleaning, trimming, grading disinfecting; Cotton ginning cleaning and bailing; Seed processing for propagation, etc., and Tourism-based activities such as Travel agency activities, Tour operator activities; Hotels and Motels, inns, resorts providing short term lodging facilities; includes accommodation in houseboats, etc. are already included as MSME activities.
As informed by the Department of Commerce, the promotion of exports of agricultural products is a continuous process. To promote agricultural exports, the Government has taken several steps at State/ District levels. State-specific Action Plans have been prepared and State Level Monitoring Committees (SLMCs), Nodal Agencies for agricultural exports, and Cluster Level Committees have been formed in a number of States. Country and product-specific action plans have also been formulated to promote exports. It has also been decided that the institutional framework created under the ‘District as Export Hub’ Initiative of the Department of Commerce would be utilized to achieve the objectives of the Agriculture Export Policy.
A Farmer Connect Portal has been set up for providing a platform for farmers, Farmer-Producer Organizations (FPOs), and cooperatives to interact with exporters. Buyer-Seller Meets (BSMs) have been organized in clusters to provide export-market linkages. Regular interactions have been held with the Indian Missions abroad, to assess and exploit export opportunities. Country-specific BSMs have also been organized.
The Government has also introduced a Central Sector Scheme – ‘Transport and Marketing Assistance for Specified Agriculture Products’ – for providing assistance for the international component of freight, to mitigate the freight disadvantage for exports of agriculture products.
The Department of Commerce provides assistance through several other schemes, to promote exports, including exports of agricultural products viz. Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES), Market Access Initiatives (MAI) Scheme, etc. In addition, assistance to the exporters of agricultural products is also available under the Export Promotion Schemes of Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), Tobacco Board, Tea Board, Coffee Board, Rubber Board, and Spices Board.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, Shri Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
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