I2U2 fruitful for India! UAE to invest $2 billion to develop series of integrated food parks

New Delhi, July 15: In a major geopolitical development, a first-ever 'West Asia Quad Summit' was held virtually on Thursday, between leaders of the four nations India, Israel, US, and UAE. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was joined by US President Joe Biden, Israeli PM Yair Lapid, and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the first virtual summit of the four-nation grouping 'I2U2'.

 

 

The I2U2 summit was primarily focused on social economic issues like joint investment, and new initiatives in water, energy, transportation, space, health, and food security. In the meeting, the leaders discussed innovative ways to ensure longer-term, more diversified food production and food delivery systems that can better manage global food shocks.

 

The summit was fruitful for India as two major projects has been announced during the summit.

 

The first project is related to the food corridor. Under the first announcement, UAE is going to invest USD 2 billion to develop a series of integrated food parks across India. It will incorporate state-of-the-art climate-smart technologies to reduce food waste and spoilage, conserve fresh water, and employ renewable energy sources. In this endeavour, the US and Israeli private sectors would lend their expertise as partners in this project, and would also look at offering innovative solutions that contribute to the overall sustainability of the project.

 

 

 

 

Under this project, New Delhi will provide appropriate land and facilitate farmers' integration into the food parks. These investments will help maximize crop yields and, in turn, help tackle food insecurity in South Asia and the Middle East.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, under the second project, the west Asia quad countries will establish a hybrid renewable energy project in India’s Gujarat State consisting of 300 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar capacity complemented by a battery energy storage system. The U.S. Trade and Development Agency funded a feasibility study for the USD 330 million projects. India's companies will also be part of this project. As per the joint statement, such projects have the potential to make India a global hub for alternate supply chains in the renewable energy sector.

 

Apart from these two specific projects, the I2U2 leaders also discussed other common sectoral areas of interest. The leaders expressed their determination to leverage well-established markets to build more innovative, inclusive, and science-based solutions to enhance food security and sustainable food systems.

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