India is one of the top five economies and the biggest agricultural producer in the world. Using the second largest arable land after the United States, India produces corn, cotton, peanuts, curry and spices, fresh fruit and vegetables, and sugar as well as crops such as wheat, rice, and beans at scale. Recently, the Indian government’s active investment policies induce large investments in agriculture and thereby great potential for economic growth. At the same time, India has strict non-tariff measures and strengthens conformity assessment procedures in agriculture. Korea has the trade surplus with India in non-agriculture sectors, but the trade deficit in agriculture. Recently, Korea seizes a chance to enter into the Indian food market due to the global popularity ofK-food. In addition, recent events such as global climate change and the war in Ukraine evoke the importance of food security and thereby the need for ensuring and diversifying a stable food supply.However, little is known about competitiveness, potential, limitations, and challenges for India’s agriculture because no research has dealt with them in Korea. This study attempts to fill this gap by exploring competitiveness of India’s agriculture and providing policy implications for economic cooperation between Korea and India. In Sections 2 and 3, focusing on India’s domestic market competitiveness in agriculture, we adopted various quantitative methodologies to measure agricultural production, global presence, related policies, and competition level.In addition, considering the importance of productivity and efficiency for agricultural Competitiveness, we measured them at firm level. Consequently, we presented opportunities and challenges for Korean exporters by providing a case study of overseas cooperation at firm level as well as performing the SWOT analysis for India’s agriculture. For this, we adopted the DEA analysis and interviewed local experts. In Sections 4 and 5, we focused on the level of international cooperation in India’s agriculture by analyzing the current trend of trade, overseas activities, and related policies and presented implications for Korean firms’ entering into India’s market. In Section 6, we examined protectionism in India’s agriculture by analyzing TBT and SPS which are main factors of non-tariff measures and suggested solutions. Accordingly, this study showed a vision for co-prosperity of Korea and India in agriculture and provided key challenges and strategies to realize it. In specific, we suggested practical tasks for economic cooperation in public and private sectors, respectively
