IF : 3.62 | IC Value 70.36 GJRA - GLOBAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH ANALYSIS X 113 Volume-5, Issue-9, September - 2016 • ISSN No 2277 - 8160 Original Research Paper Commerce Economics Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Contribution to Indian GDP and Future Trend Mr. S. Thowseaf Research Scholar, No - 47 Hasthinapuram Main Road, Nehru Nagar, Chromepet, Chennai 600044 Dr. M. Ayisha Millath Assistant Professor, Landmark - Opposite to M. I. T. College Increasing population in global scale has imposed a great demand on basic amenities such as food, shelter and clothing. Clearly food and clothing’s are the derived out of agriculture, India’s traditional farming occupation and tropical climate have induced a great scope for producing products and food for consumption. Despite India is being a 2nd largest populated country is rising itself in world economy by increasing GDP through Export. India is the second largest producer of fruits around the world whose global share is estimated to be approximately 10% and second largest producer of vegetables whose global share is calculated to be ≈15%. Despite of 20-30% wastage due to lack of infrastructure, technology, inadequate knowledge on – processing, storage and transportation, India could still stand as largest producer of agro products. India’s agricultural and processed food exports are negligible in comparison to the total production because, large amount of production are used for domestic consumption. Currently 16% of India’s GDP relay on agriculture. Agriculture and processed food export constitutes 10% of the total country’s export. Thereby export is an important tool to hedge the demand of foreign currencies and increase the Indian money value in international market alongside lifting the economy from the surplus produced. This paper examines the contribution of agricultural and processed food towards Indian GDP. Secondary data had been used for the purpose of trend analysis to forecast the future contribution by agricultural and processed food industry. The result thus derived through trend analysis indicates increased net income in projected years despite of decrease in production of agricultural and processed food metric tonnage. ABSTRACT KEYWORDS : APEDA- Prospects, GDP contribution 1.1 Introduction India’s contribution towards global food basket is significant ever since India started international trade and export. Agrarian culture existing in India have made the country posses largest population of cows and buffalos for dairy farming, Indian is the largest pro- ducer of milk in the world, it produces on an average of 140 mil- lion tonnes per year. India posses 56.7% of the total buffalo pop- ulation around the world, whose value is accounted to be 112.9 million, which are formally employed in producing dairy products and biogas preparation (apeda.gov.in, 2016). The tropical climate of the country is an added boon for cultivation of varieties of fruits and vegetables that has exciting taste and flavors in internation- al market. India ranks second in fruits (90 million tonnes approx- imately/year) and vegetables (165 million tonnes approximately/ year). India is country surrounded by ocean on three sides, thereby fisheries has become an important source of occupation to people living alongside the sea. Indian is the second largest producer of fish; it had produced 10 million tonnes during 2013-14 (CCI, 2016). It is 10% of the total produced agriculture and food processing are exported. Agriculture, processed food and its allies sector is providing employment to 47% of the Indian population and have contributed 16% of the India’s GDP (tradingeconomics.com, 2016). Agriculture and food processing sector is an instrument for eco- nomic growth and a vital component for most of the industrial sector to function as it provides raw material. 2.1 Export of Agricultural and Processed Food from In- dia Indian agriculture and food industry s segregated into five seg- ments namely; fresh fruits and vegetables, floriculture – com- prising fruits, vegetable seeds and flowers, processed fruits and vegetables and other processed food, and cereals such as rice and wheat. During 2014-15, Indian agricultural and processed food export has fetched US$ 21.5 billion. Among the exported goods, cereals and animal products had accounted 69.7% fol- lowed by fruits and vegetable, whose value is calculated to be 5.7% and floriculture products accounting 0.67% (IBEF.Org., 2016). Indian agricultural and processed foods are exported to more than 100 countries around the world (APEDA, Annual Re- port, 2014). Major exported items include cereals, processed meat, groundnut, guar gum, jiggery, confectionary and fresh onions. These achievements are made possible because, though India is small country in considering land area, it possess the sec- ond largest area for agricultural cultivation, which is calculated to be 179.9 million hectares (statisticstimes, 2016). Figure 1 - Agricultural and Processed Food Exported From India Source - (APEDA, Annual Report, 2012, 2013) The report generated by RBI statistical department of India is present- ed in Figure-1, wherein the quantity of Agricultural and processed food produced in metric tonnes and its corresponding revenue gen- erated is indicated in Rupees in lakhs (www.dgciskol.nic.in, 2016). The igure depicts steady decrease in quantity export production and increase in revenue. The export production decrement indicates level of increment in wastage of goods produced and domestic de- mand. Whereas the increase in revenue on export indicates that, the demand for Indian agricultural and processed food in international market. Research Scholar, Alagappa Institute of Management, Alagappa University, Karaikudi -630004 Assistant Professor, Alagappa Institute of Management, Alagappa University, Karaikudi -630004