'Knowledge Initiative to foster II Green Revolution'

Washington, June 8: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar expressed the hope that the Agriculture Knowledge Initiative would help foster a second Green Revolution in India.

India is vigorously involved in transforming its rural economy by making agriculture a sustainable and profitable venture, Mr Pawar said here at a meeting with US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns.

Mr Pawar, who is a on a three-day visit to the US, discussed bilateral trade issues and areas of cooperation and progress in the ongoing partnership of the US-India Agriculture Knowledge Initiative (AKI) with Mr Johanns.

''India and the United States share a strong commitment to democratic principles. Strengthening our partnership will benefit the economic, strategic and agricultural interests of both our countries for many years to come, as India assumes an increasingly important leadership role across Asia in the 21st century,'' Secretary Johanns said.

The two leaders also also spoke to members of the US-India Agriculture Knowledge Initiative Board at their third meeting.

Dr Norman E Borlaug, winner of the Nobel Prize for leading the Green Revolution of the 1960s and honorary advisor for the Board, also addressed the Board regarding the continuing importance of sustainable agricultural practices to maintain a secure food supply.

He emphasised the crucial role biotechnology will play in ensuring food security, and was pleased that the Board had identified it as one of the four priority areas. The Board announced the selection of 12 Fellows for the Borlaug Fellowships, and stated that 12 Cochran Fellows would be selected by the end of 2006.

Two biotechnology workshops and a joint workshop on water management were also slated for the next three months. These would identify joint research programmes and collaborations in these areas.

The US-India Agriculture Knowledge Initiative, which was created in November 2005 to revitalise agricultural collaboration between the two countries, focusses on university capacity building, food processing and marketing, biotechnology and water management.

The Board aims to achieve its goals by raising agricultural productivity through technology transfer, including biotechnology; expanding US-India trade and investment by policy and regulatory capacity building; ensuring a key role for the Indian and US private sectors; and re-invigorating the US-India university-to-university partnerships.

The Board comprises of 16 members taken from academia, government and the private sector. Board co-chairs are A Ellen Terpstra, USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, and Dr Mangala Rai, Secretary of India's Department of Agricultural Research and Education and Director General of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research.

The National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges will be inviting proposals from American universities to partner with Indian agricultural universities for specific projects.

UNI

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