The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW), Government of India, has been organizing the ‘India Agricultural Outlook Forum’ since 2017. The 1st Agricultural Outlook Forum was organized in August 2017 in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The focus was mainly on farm revenue and sustainability; role of innovative technology; use of big data in agriculture; and strengthening of crop estimation systems.

Overwhelming response from the delegates, stakeholders and participants encouraged the Department to organize the 2nd India Agricultural Outlook Forum in September 2018 on a larger scale. The Forum deliberated on long-term demand and supply projections of agricultural commodities for India prepared by NITI Aayog and Global Agriculture Outlook prepared by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The other major issues addressed in the Forum include regulatory issues in agriculture, need for innovative farm technology and management, challenges in water management and agricultural insurance, crop residue management, agricultural trade, etc. Experts from various countries and International Organizations, including USA, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, France, European Union and FAO actively participated in the deliberations of the Forum.

The 3rd IAOF was held during September 26-27, 2019 in New Delhi. The deliberations mainly focused on the Universal Basic Income for Farmers and other key challenges and opportunities before the agricultural sector, including the ways to manage excess production, price forecasting, artificial intelligence, water management, input markets, insurance, etc.

The Forum has over time emerged as an important platform for having updates on global and national agricultural outlook and in gaining deeper insights into national and international agricultural issues and developing more dynamic agricultural policy regime through sharing of experiences and best practices

In view of the emerging national and global economic realities following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department is now organizing a webinar “4th India Agricultural Outlook Forum 2020” during October 15-16, 2020. This year, among other things, the forum would deliberate on major agricultural reforms initiated by the Government of India for better managing farm sector to ensure growth with stability and equity.