India & Israel have signed a three-year 5th Indo-Israel Agriculture Action Plan (IIAP) 2021-23 agreement for development in Agriculture cooperation. Under the work program, both countries will implement two initiatives namely ‘Indo-Israel Agricultural Project Centre of Excellence’ & ‘Indo-Israel Villages of Excellence (IIVoE)’.It will benefit local farmers through the Centers of Excellence and the Villages of Excellence.
- Objective – To grow existing Centres of Excellence (CoE), establish new centers, increase CoE’s value chain, bring CoE into the self-sufficient mode, and encourage private sector companies and collaboration.
- The villages around these COEs will be transformed into villages of Excellence through numerous development projects.
- The program was attended by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare – Parshottam Rupala and Kailash Choudhary and other senior officials of the Israel Government.
Indo-Israeli Agriculture Project (IIAP)
An Indo-Israel Work Plan was signed during the visit of Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to Israel in May 2006. The First IIAP work program began in 2008 -2010. It is Israel’s largest Government-2-Government (G2G) cooperation. Till now four IIAP work programs had been executed. India and Israel had bilateral relations since 1993 in the agricultural sector.
Aim – It is based on the concept of establishing a Centre of Excellence (CoE) to provide a platform for the transfer of technology to farmers for increasing their productivity and quality of produce.
- Implementing partners – National Horticulture Mission (NHM) under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), India, and Israel’s Agency for International Development (MASHAV) and CINADCO under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
INDO-ISRAEL Agricultural Project Centres of Excellence
ii.Under the IIAP, 29 CoEs have been established across India in 12 states.
- The COEs established under these Israeli-based action plans are playing an important role in doubling farmers’ income. The exchange of technology between India and Israel will greatly improve the productivity and quality of horticulture.
- Each year these CoEs produce more than 25 million quality vegetable seedlings, more than 387 thousand quality fruity plants and train more than 1.2 lakh farmers about the latest technology in the field of horticulture.
Indo-Israel Villages of Excellence (IIVoE)
i.It is a new concept aimed at creating a model ecosystem in agriculture across 8 states in India (alongside 13 already existing CoE in 75 villages).
ii.The CoEs will generate knowledge, demonstrate best practices, and train farmers.It will help in increasing the net income and livelihood of individual farmers by transforming traditional farms into modern-intensive farms based on IIAP standards.
iii.IIVoE will focus on Modern Agriculture Infrastructure, Capacity Building, and Market linkage.
Recent Related News:
On 20th August 2020, Uttar Pradesh (UP) Government signed an agreement with Israel’s Water Resource Minister for the water resource management in the Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh.
About Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW)
Union Minister – Narendra Singh Tomar (Morena, Madhya Pradesh)
Minister of State – Parshottam Rupala (Rajya Sabha, Gujarat), Kailash Choudhary (Barmer, Rajasthan)
About Israel
Prime Minister – Benjamin Netanyahu
Capital – Jerusalem
Currency – Israeli Shekel
