India, Italy join hands for cooperation in agriculture and Phytosanitary issues

New Delhi, December 7: India and Italy on Wednesday signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in Agriculture and Phytosanitary issues. Notably, the MoU was signed between Indian Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh and Italian Minister for Agriculture H.E Maurizio Martina that will provide a good framework for cooperation in this field.

 

After signing the MoU, Minister Radha Mohan Singh conveyed that India attaches great importance to the development of bilateral ties between the two countries and look forward to further expand and strengthen ties between the two countries in various areas including in the Agriculture sector. He thanked the Italian Minister for participating in the AGRIMACH India, 2017 along with a large business delegation.

Minister Singh also identified areas such as agriculture machinery, training, investment, institutional linkages, precision farming, cattle breeding and fisheries having much potential for cooperation, and briefly provides the initiatives taken by the Government in the field of agriculture market, soil health, irrigation, crop insurance etc.

Singh also raised the issue of Indian exports of grapes and rice suffering on account of arbitrary Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) set by European Commission. He suggested a mutually acceptable solution can found to this issue, as these limits were set by EU without any scientific assessment being shared to India.

Minister Radha Mohan Singh said that India has always had an active association with IFAD ever since it was set up in 1977 as the 13th specialized agency of the United Nations. India is a founder member of IFAD, a key contributor among the member Countries, participates actively in the Fund's governing bodies, and holds a permanent seat on IFAD Executive Board. It currently holds the chairmanship of the Governing Council and of the Evaluation Committee.

On the other side, Italian Minister for Agriculture Food and Forestry Policies H.E Maurizio Martina mentioned that India and Italy enjoy traditionally friendly and cordial relations.