Afghanistan Agriculture Minister invites Indian Farmers and Corporates to invest in Afghanistan

Mr Mohammad Asif Rahimi, Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock, Afghanistan invited Indian farmers and industry to invest in Afghanistan so that they could increase their business while helping his country to rejuvenate as it slowly rose from the ashes. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the CII Agro Tech 2010 International Conference on “Future of Indian Agriculture-Sustaining Indian Agriculture Growth,” organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and held at the CII Northern Region Headquarters, Chandigarh. He said that Indian entrepreneurs had a great opportunity as they would be welcomed in his country with an open heart. He said that most of the people in Afghanistan could speak Hindi and hence the industry would not have any difficulty in communicating with them. Mr Rahimi said that many Indians were already working in Afghanistan and they could also help in proper management and the application of technology for the advancement of Agriculture. India, he said, was ahead in every field and about 4000 Afghani students at present were studying here. “We are eagerly awaiting their return so that we can take the benefit of their education,” he said. He emphasized that India has a special place in the hearts of the Afghans. “We love Indian movies, jewellery, music, dance and many more things. At the same time, India is also the largest buyer of many products like dry fruits etc. from Afghanistan”. He said before the year 2000, his country was having a 3 percent growth in Agriculture but it fell drastically after that. However, in 2008, it recorded a 4 percent increase but a bigger boost was necessary to feed the people. This was possible only with the introduction of latest technology in Agriculture and India could be of immense help in it. Mr Paramvir Singh, Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Cooperation and Fisheries Department, Government of Haryana, said that Agriculture was passing through a crucial phase, though 60 percent population depended on it. Hence, efforts were needed, besides hard work, in the concerned areas in order to sustain the growth in Agriculture. The private sector could help Haryana in this and industrialists should come forward, he added. He said that there were gaps in the production of Agriculture not only in the states but also in various districts. “There we need to give more attention to storage, warehousing, hybrid seeds, fertilizers, infrastructure, water management and transportation.” He demanded that a Technology Mission in Farm Development be set up and farmers should be provided loan at 4 percent interest. He also referred to the post harvest losses and said that these were alarming. For this, the main reason was lack of storage facilities and infrastructure. Mr Salil Singhal, Chairman, Agro Tech 2010, said that small farm holdings were a big challenge as they affected the buying capacity of farmers. Only technology could help the farmers increase their output. He said that the corporate sector was looking af working with the farmers to provide them with latest technology development. Welcoming the Food Security Act, he stressed the need for the second Green revolution. Mr Gokul Patnaik, Chairman, Agro Tech 2010 Conferences, gave details of the various conferences to be held in four days. Talking about the agriculture scenario, he said that Gujarat was the only state in India which had recorded 9.6 percent growth in Agriculture, while the national average was only 2.3 percent. Soil health and hybrid seeds should be looked into and minimum support price was needed for crop diversification. Mr S Venkatraman, Senior Director & Head of Food and Agribusiness Research and Advisory (FAR), India emphasized the need for focusing on various aspects of Agricultural conditions, like seed replacement, fertilizers and improvement of soil testing facilities in order to rejuvenate it. Mr R M Khanna, Chairman, CII Northern Region assured the Afghanistan Minister that Indian industry would like to invest in Afghanistan in a big way. He said that we would like that bilateral relations between the two countries should grow as far as possible. Agriculture sector was the largest sector all over the world and hence needed the attention of both the Government and the Private sector.