India & Netherlands discuss ways to strengthen partnership in agriculture & allied sectors

New Delhi: Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Mr Radha Mohan Singh met Ms Carola Schouten, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, Netherlands in Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi and expressed his desire to further strengthen the existing partnership between the two countries in agriculture and allied sectors.

Mr Singh reiterated the Government’s resolve to double the income of farmers by 2022 and the initiatives taken and stressed on the need for infusing modern technology in India’s agriculture. He further added that Netherlands is a global leader in construction of greenhouses as well as in the cultivation of flowers, plants and vegetables, and the diversification of agriculture sector into areas like livestock and plant-cultivation sectors.”

Mr Singh expressed happiness at the regular convening of Joint Working Group, the 5th having been held in March 2018, where discussions on a wide range of issues took place and extended the Action Plan till 2021.

Union Agriculture Minister said a major success of the Indo Dutch collaboration has been the commissioning of the Centre of Excellence (CoEs) for vegetables at Baramati in Maharashtra. The second CoE for flowers at Talegaon, Maharashtra will be ready soon. Others are in various stages of completion and the focus is on making technology affordable to the small and marginal Indian farmers.

Mr Singh said other identifiable areas of interest for further cooperation such as technology for crop residue management and cooperation in the field of bovine breeding; dairy development, animal health and porcine development etc. are also being looked into.