NEW DELHI : The Government could soon mandate a high-level panel under the Cabinet secretary to review curbs on exports of major farm items — including onion, rice, wheat, cotton and sugar — that witnessed periodic restrictions in the past, in a bid to have a predictable trade regime and add to farmers’ income.

“The mandate of a committee under the Cabinet Secretary — which used to review prices, demand and supply of various commodities — is likely to be soon expanded to enable it to review export restrictions on sensitive items,” a Senior Government Official said recently. Apart from the Cabinet Secretary, the panel will likely comprise Secretaries of Agriculture, Food, Consumer Affairs, Commerce and Revenue.

In December 2018, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had approved an agriculture export policy that proposed to keep the outbound shipment of processed and organic items free of any restriction. However, it had stopped short of advocating a removal of restrictions for all the time on exports of major farm items.

In March, the Government introduced a Rs 300-crore scheme to offer financial assistance for transport and marketing of dozens of agricultural commodities for exports to certain countries. But exports of key items, such as rice, wheat, onion, meat and raw sugar, remained outside the scheme’s ambit.

Analysts have argued that without keeping key items free of export curbs for all times and undertaking structural reforms, especially in farm marketing, it would be difficult to raise agriculture exports to $60 billion by 2022 (from over $38 billion in FY19), as targeted by the Government.