Israel to set up centres in India for cooperative R&D

Israel's influence will be present in 10 Indian states by 2015 as it plans to set up various centres of excellence for floriculture, fruits and vegetables. After the success of two centres, one for vegetables in Karnal and another for fruit orchards in Sirsa, both the countries have decided to set up 26 similar centres in different states under Indo-Israel agriculture cooperation agreement of 2008.

The objective is to demonstrate Israeli agriculture technologies and know-how to local farmers on the use of protected cultivation, which allows crops to be grown beyond seasonal barriers through efficient use of water and controlling of temperature using poly-housescanopies.

Calling it the best example of cooperation between the two countries, Israeli minister of economy Naftali Bennett, who visited the Centre of Excellence for Vegetables in Karnal to see it function on Tuesday, told TOI that the idea of this step was to increase productivity through efficient use of water and other resources and made the entire agricultural activity less expensive for the farmers not only in Haryana but also in other parts of India.

The concept of cooperation behind these centres is to create a platform for joint Indian and Israeli agriculture research and development (R&D) on the ground that will benefit both the countries in the long run. Each centre will be focused on specific fruit and vegetable crops.

Israel will provide seeds and technologies to help grow new variety of vegetables and fruits like cucumber, capsicum, mango, dates and herbs.

Source: indiatimes.com