AgriNation News Network (ANN)

New Delhi| 16 Jan 2018

In a joint statement today, India and Israel announced that they were working together on a Five Year Joint Work Plan for strategic cooperation in agriculture and water.

A three-year joint programme (2018-20) has already commenced, under which the Centres of Excellence (COEs) are being set up across the country to train farmers about Israeli farm and water technologies. 28 such centres are being set up across the country under the programme.

The two Prime Ministers were apprised of the progress made in jointly establishing 28 COEs.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu will also new centre at Bhuj, Gujarat.  They will also visit a centre in Vadrad in Gujarat.

India’s PM Modi said, “We will strengthen the existing pillars of cooperation in areas that touch the lives of our peoples. These are agriculture, science and technology, and security.”

Netanyahu said, “Indian farm sector will get revolutionized with use of Israeli water efficiency improving technology”.

“Some plants need more water, some less. We can see it today with big data, with drones, with other instruments of technology to make farmers produce much more crops. More crops with less,” he added.

India and Israel also agreed on ways to develop joint programmes to help third countries in the areas of training, capacity building, and the development of small projects in the agriculture, water, health-care and education sectors.