After Latin American countries like Argentina and Uruguay, Ethiopia on Tuesday invited Indian farmers for taking up commercial farming of pulses in African nation.
Ethiopian minister of Agriculture Tafera Derbew said that Indian farmers can avail the opportunity of vast farming land set aside by African country for commercial farming and grow pulses and edible oil crops for export back to India. Derbew called up minister of state for consumer affairs, food & public distribution KV Thomas.
Thomas requested the Ethiopian minister to set up single window system for various clearances to Indian entrepreneurs for taking up commercial farming in the African country.
If materialises this would help the country a large extent, as close to 50% of edible oil consumption and about 15% pulses consumption in the country are imported.
India is the world’s largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses. It imports about 1.5 ? 2 million tonne of pulses mainly tur and urad from countries including Mynamar, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique.
He said India can provide technical expertise in the area of watershed development and standardisation of various food products. The Bureau of Indian Standards and Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) have been providing training to experts from Ethiopia.
India is the largest foreign investor in Ethiopia with approved investment of $ 4.4 billion, out of which 40% investment is in the field of commercial agriculture. Ethiopia will also hold Indian Africa Forum Summit in May 2011 to strengthen bilateral cooperation. ?we wish to increase substantially by opening new ventures particularly in the farm sector,? Thomas said.
Thomas said the Ethiopian delegation was impressed with the ‘efficient’ running of Public Distribution System (PDS) in India and sought details of its operation for adopting the model back home. Ethiopian side is also seeking cooperation in the areas of irrigation system and watershed programmes.
Ethiopian minister will meet agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, discussing export of soya oil, pulses and food processing technologies. In September last year India had signed an agreement with Argentina on conducting research in agriculture and other allied sectors, for its policy towards tapping natural and other resources in South America to boost its food security.
Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors with his Argentine counterpart Julian Andres Dominguez here this weekend.
The South American countries have emerged as main exporters of commodities, especially to emerging markets, significantly denting the US-Europe domination in agri-business sector. They have overtaken the US in soya production, accounting for 50% of global output.