India and Egypt held discussions on a range of issues relating to agriculture sector here today.
The Indian side was led by Agriculture Minister, Shri Sharad Pawar and the Egyptian delegation was led by Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Mr. Amin Abaza.
The areas discussed included agricultural research, extension, cooperatives, agricultural finance and credit, fertilizers, modern irrigation systems, agricultural machinery and possibilities of setting up joint ventures.
During discussions, Shri Pawar expressed the hope that many mutually beneficial ventures will come into being on the lines of the phosphoric acid plant being set up by IFFCO in Southern Egypt with 75 per cent equity participation in a total investment of $ 326 million, in partnership with Al Nasr Mining Company.
He further said: ‘though, it will be a pleasure to explore further cooperation between government institutions such as ICAR and ARC in the areas of interest, I strongly feel that the cooperation to be meaningful should be through involvement of industry’.
The Egyptian delegation is on an official visit to India on the invitation of the Indian Agriculture Minister. The delegation includes Advisor to the Minister, Director of Egyptian Agriculture Centre for Research and President of the Agricultural Development Bank.
There is a Memorandum of Understanding between Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Agricultural Research Centre, Ministry of Agriculture, Egypt. The MoU envisages cooperation in the areas of extension, crop science, fisheries and natural resource management. The MoU is being implemented through biennial work plans and the work plan for 2007-08 is under implementation currently.
The Egyptian delegation has held discussions with IFFCO and Escorts and will be visiting IARI tomorrow.
