National Seminar on Doubling Food Production in Five years through an Indo - Dutch Approach
Posted on : 29-08-2013 | Back | Print
National Seminar Focuses on Doubling Food Production in Five years through an Indo - Dutch Approach
May 23, 2013
“It is imperative that any initiative taken in Agriculture sector helps us in increasing the farmers’ income which is crucial for increasing food production.” said Mr Sanjeev Chopra, Joint Secretary & Mission Director, National Horticulture Mission & National Mission on Micro Irrigation, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India. He further appreciated the setting of Centres of Excellence in several states of India under the Indo – Dutch collaboration and said that such COEs are a welcome step and it compels us to think big and scale certain milestones”.
Mr Chopra was addressing, industry representatives, academia and government & embassy officials at the Seminar on “How to Double Food Production-In Five years– An Indo - Dutch Approach” which was organized jointly by CII Northern Region and The Netherlands Embassy.
Mr Chopra, shared that an agreement between Indian & Dutch Government was signed for cooperation in the area of agriculture/food are defined. For this Centers of Excellence (CoE) are being established in some of the states in India, namely Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Punjab, West Bengal and Kerala for horticulture, dairy and meat processing. He also stressed that for the success of this initiative proper procedure is very important.
Presenting the Theme Address, the Netherlands Ambassador HE Alphonsus Stoelinga, said that Dutch have always felt at home in India as Dutch traders have come to India four hundred years ago. Today we are here to create a new relationship in the agriculture sector by collaborating with India on the COEs that are big set up in the states of India .
Mrs Anuradha Prasad, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries and Mrs Rajni Sekri Sibal, Joint Secretary Animal Husbandry, Ministry of Agriculture also addressed the delegates at the Seminar.
Mr Jan Hak, Chairman, Netherlands Agro Food & Technology Center in his address mentioned that NAFTC is a public private partnership representing Dutch Agriculture, Food & Agro/Food Technology enterprises in selected countries and is the implementation body from the Dutch side. He also shared that NAFTC will be working with the respective states to make these CoEs approach sustainable.
In his concluding remarks, Mr Arie Veldhuizen, Counselor for Agriculture, Nature & Food Quality, Embassy of the Netherlands stressed that these CoEs are important for achieving the goal of Doubling the food production in next five years and proper roadmap is being jointly prepared by Indian & Dutch Government for successful implementation & evaluation of the Centers of Excellence.
Earlier in the day, while welcoming the delegates, Mr Salil Singhal, Chairman, CII National Council of Agriculture &Chairman, PI Industries said that CII has always whole heartedly supported the initiatives towards the development of sectors that are crucial to the growth of the country and is also supporting this initiative of the Embassy of Netherlands where they are setting up Centers of excellence in various states of India, with an aim of doubling the food production in the country in next five years. Mr Singhal also highlighted that the CII National Council on Agriculture has taken up Rejuvenating Indian Agriculture as its key priority agenda and with this objective the Council has actively engaged with the Government, both at the Central and State levels.
The Seminar marked the presence of eminent speakers from ICAR, National Horticulture Mission and Dutch Institutes & Companies.
The Seminar was well attended by over 150 delegates from all over India which included Government officials from the States of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Punjab, West Bengal and Kerala, representatives from Agriculture Institutes (Indian as well as Dutch), farmers, and industry. In the evening a networking Dinner was hosted by The Netherlands Ambassador at his residence which was attended by more than 200 guests from different Embassies. Govt officials, industry and institutes.
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