AgriNation News Network

New Delhi. 22 Feb 2018

Israel is providing help to set up an agriculture centre in the Northeast. A delegation led by the Israeli ambassador to India, Daniel Carmon, met the Union minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of DoNER, Jitendra Singh, in New Delhi on Wednesday.

According to a DoNER ministry statement issued on Wednesday, the Israeli ambassador said a centre for agriculture, with Israeli expertise, will be inaugurated in Mizoram on March 7. This will be the first centre in the Northeast that is being established with Israeli collaboration, he added.

Various issues, including start-ups, food processing, innovation and technology were discussed during the meeting.

The project has been set up with the tripartite collaboration of the Union ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, government of Israel and the Mizoram state government.

Israel will provide expertise and professional support. The centre will cater to the whole region.

The DoNER minister said this centre was the beginning of the larger collaboration between the two countries in this area.

He said the DoNER ministry will coordinate wherever required, he said, adding that it would benefit the farmers of the region in the long run and will also encourage farmers from other regions. It will serve as a model of learning for other countries in the Indian sub-continent, he added.

He said Sikkim has been declared the first organic state in the country and Israel can look forward to this kind of collaboration there as well. It will benefit the people of the Northeast in the areas of innovation, especially for start-ups.

There are 22 operational centres in India, including in the states of Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab. The first centre was established in 2008 in Haryana. He said in the long run, Israel wants to establish one centre in each state.

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