Israel To Expand Agricultural Cooperation With India In Rural Areas - Embassy

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th August, 2020) Israel is planning to boost agricultural cooperation with India by establishing so-called villages of excellence to complement the existing "centers of excellence" for specialized advanced farming, Deputy Chief of Israeli Mission to India Rony Yedidia-Clein told Sputnik in an interview.

As part of the bilateral Agricultural Cooperation Project, started in 2008, Israel and India have established an Indian-wide network of state-funded centers of excellence each of which specializes in a specific segment of agriculture and farming, such as vegetables, bee keeping, flowers, dairy and citrus fruit, among others.

"We have been working in India over the past several years on the Centers of Excellence and we are now planning to extend that into the Villages of Excellence.

The Centers of Excellence which we have in 28 different locations around the country in 20 different states in India ... work with Indian farmers and agronomists in order to develop better ways of growing agricultural produce, and now we will be expanding those into the villages around them," Yedidia-Clein said.

The diplomat, who only recently took office as Israel's deputy chief of mission in India, said the two countries also plan to expand cooperation around innovation and culture.

"Within the next few weeks, we will be signing another memorandum of understanding on the subject of cultural cooperation and innovation," Yedidia-Clein said.

Other target areas of bilateral cooperation, as elaborated by the diplomat, include education and business-to-business ties.