India and Israel have signed a three-year combined work programme till 2023 intending to enhance cooperation in the field of agriculture, Agricultural Minister Narendra Tomar Singh, said this Monday.

New Delhi 24 May 2021: Till now, four such combined work programmee have been profitably completed. Under this programme, Centres of Excellence (CoEs) were set up to train farmers about Israeli farm and water technologies.

Concerning this new programme, Villages of Excellence (VoE) - a model ecosystem in agriculture shall be created across eight states alongside 13 CoEs within 75 villages, promoting the increase of net income and enhance the livelihood of every farmer, revolutionizing traditional farms based on IIAP standards.
"India and Israel have had bilateral relations since 1993 in the agricultural field and it's the 5th Indo-Israel Agricultural Action Plan (IIAP) with four successful plans already completed."
Furthermore, this 5th plan will bilaterally establish relations and cooperation between the two nations, for the betterment of the farming community.

As Tomar said, asserting the CoEs set up under Israeli-based plans, play an important role in growing farmer's income, alongside the exchange of technology between the two nations enhancing productivity and quality of horticulture.
So far 29 centers of CoEs are operational in all the 12 states of the country, producing more than 25 million quality vegetable seedlings, 3,87,000 quality fruit plants, 1.2 lakh trained farmers every year.

CoEs established under the IIAP have become the epicenters of transformation.
Also, "our main focus is to convert SoEs surrounding villages into VoE through a massive outreach programme, " says Sanjay Agarwal, Agricultural Secretary

Israel Ambassador to India Ron Malka said: "The 3-year work programme (2021-23) reflects the strength of our flourishing partnership that will benefit local farmers both via the CoEs & VoE. Also, he added, this shall continue its aim to grow existing SoEs and their value chain, establish new centers, making CoEs self-sufficient, encourage private sector companies & collaboration.

Junior Agricultural Ministers Parshottam Rupala and Kailash Choudhary with senior officers from Israel Govt. were present at the signing ceremony.

Source:PTI