INDO-ISRAELI COOPERATION IN AGRICULTURE

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India and Israel have decided to work on a Memorandum of Understanding to increase cooperation in various fields of agriculture. The decision was taken at a meeting between Agriculture Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh and the visiting Israeli Agriculture Minister, Shri Yisrael Katz here today. The two countries will also set up a joint committee of officers which will meet frequently for discussion on various agricultural issues. Both the sides showed keen interest in increasing cooperation in the fields of horticulture, floriculture and aquaculture. The need to exchange the latest technologies in these fields was emphasized at the talks.

Shri Rajnath Singh expressed the desire to learn from the Israeli experience in water management. He pointed out that Israel has developed a number of drought assistance varieties of crops and India can benefit from this experience. Fodder development is another area in which the Indian side showed keen interest to collaborate with Israel. The Israeli Agriculture Minister said that the agricultural relations between the two countries have a lot of potential. The exchange of experts between the two countries has been proceeding on a large scale and both the countries have benefited from this. Pointing out that Israel is also a largely semi-arid country and has many characteristics common with India, Shri Yisrael Katz said that the two countries can collaborate on a number of projects.