The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Radha Mohan Singh met Mr. Suhrob Kholmuradov, Deputy Prime Minister, Uzbekistan and Chairman of the State Investment Committee in Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi and sought to strengthen bilateral cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors.
Union Agriculture Minister reiterated India’s tremendous progress in the agriculture sector and its commitment to double farmers’ income by 2022 through a series of reforms, namely Soil Health Card, Organic Farming, Crop insurance, irrigation, eNAM etc. He said India has become one of the most preferred investment destinations of the world.
Shri Singh said, “We are ready to partner with Uzbekistan in providing training and sharing expertise in skill development, effective and optimum use of water for dry lands, integrated farming systems, mechanization and farm machinery,” adding India can provide training to Uzbekistan for the development of Green House with the help of Centre of Excellence (CoE).
India is currently importing moong, natural gum, walnut, chickpeas, and juices from Uzbekistan. The Union Minister urged Mr. Suhrob to also consider importing mango, potato, wheat, meslin, sugar etc. from India.
Shri Singh stressed on the importance of constitution of agricultural clusters for small and marginal farmers and fragmented land holdings and offered to share India’s experience in the formation of FPOs and cooperatives in order to ensure better returns to farmers. He also assured the Deputy Prime Minister that the revised draft agreement on cooperation in the field of Plant Quarantine as proposed by Uzbekistan is under active consideration.
The Minister also called for the need to promote interaction among government agricultural institutions, experts, scientists and agro business. He further expressed interest to work together in the area of animal husbandry and was willing to assist in setting up food processing industries in Uzbekistan.
