As a bilateral cooperation project of the BMEL, the Indo-German cooperation project on agricultural market development contributes to sustainable economic growth in India’s agricultural sector and to improved living conditions in rural regions, and is thus in line with the development policy goals of the Indian government. Through the agricultural policy dialogue, strategies for modernizing agricultural markets are supported and findings and transferred know-how are put into practice.

An important core element is to reflect the knowledge and learning experiences gained in the course of project implementation at the local level back to the state and national level (multi-level approach) in order to improve the political framework conditions on the one hand, and to increase understanding and acceptance for political decisions at the regional and local level on the other. The scaling up of “best practices” is also an important component of the project. In addition, three cross-cutting issues are given special attention in all project activities:

• Gender sensitivity in order to empower women in the agricultural sector and increase their visibility;
• Digitalization, technological innovations oriented towards the great potential of digitalization to significantly increase efficiency, transparency, information flow and traceability in agricultural markets and value chains.
• Climate sensitivity, by taking into account the conservation of natural resources and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the planning and implementation of activities and by referring to ecologically valuable approaches.

Political partners of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) is the Indian Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW). Operational partners are the National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (NIAM), Jaipur  and the Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI), Faridabad.

The networking of the Indian institutions with the corresponding institutions on the German/European side is intended to facilitate a continuous exchange of information and knowledge via established contacts even beyond the project term.