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| Vadodara News |
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23-Mar-2012 |
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| Israel to set up 3 agricultural excellence centres in state |
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| Focus on cultivation methods and reuse of waste water for agriculture |
| The Israeli government is planning to set up three agricultural excellence centres in Gujarat. The centres will come up with the help of Gujarat government. While two of the centres will focus on cultivation methods, one will be made for reuse of waste water for agriculture. Israel Consul General, Orna Sagiv, who was in the city on Thursday, said that the centres will help Indians cultivate crops with better technology and improve productivity.
"One of the centres will come up in Ahmedabad that will focus on vegetables while the one in Jamnagar will focus on mangoes. The location for third one is yet to be finalized," Sagiv said.
When asked about the purpose of setting up such centres, she said, "Israel has been able to improve its agricultural productivity by employing scientific methods and making better use of technology. We want to transfer this expertise to India which has vast agricultural land. Israel has been the pioneer in several cultivation and harvesting methods. Our experts will pass on their knowledge to Indian experts at these centres."
While one such centre is already functioning in Haryana, three are being planned in Maharashtra. She stressed that the project was not commercial and added that lot of Israeli companies want to invest in India, especially in Gujarat. "During 1950s our population was six lakh and 65 per cent of it was farmers. In 2012, our population increased to 80 lakh and only 2.4 per cent of it is farmers. But despite such a drastic decline, our agricultural produce has increased manifolds as we have employed best technology."
Sagiv said that this year they will be celebrating 20 years of trade relations with India. "Every year about 40,000 Israeli tourists visit India and the same number of tourists from India visit Israel. We want that the number of tourists from India to increase in future." When asked whether she feels insecure after the recent terror attack on an Israeli diplomat's vehicle in Delhi, Sagiv said that she feels very safe in India and the police have been very helpful here. |
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