Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and Rural Development, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, along with Israel's Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Avi Dichter, visited the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Pusa, under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), today in Delhi.
During the visit, Devesh Chaturvedi, Secretary of Agriculture and acting Director General of ICAR, briefed the ministers and other delegates about the foundation of the India-Israel collaboration in agriculture. He highlighted that the foundation stone of the India-Israel R&D and Demonstration Farm was laid on December 31, 1996, by the then-Israeli President His Excellency Ezer Weizman and India's then Union Agriculture Minister Chaturanan Mishra.
The Joint Director (Research) of IARI informed the dignitaries about India's first Centre of Excellence in Agriculture based on Indo-Israel collaboration, which was launched at IARI, Pusa. The Centre has played a pivotal role in demonstrating and training farmers and officials across India, and in promoting protected cultivation techniques nationwide.
The visiting delegation was introduced to various protected cultivation technologies and crop varieties developed by IARI scientists, which have been widely adopted across the country. The ministers also toured a greenhouse established in 1998 with Israeli expertise, showcasing the deep-rooted partnership between the two nations in agricultural innovation.
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