Agriculture Minister Addresses G-20 Agriculture Ministers Meet

Fri, 05/08/2015 ,Istanbul, Turkey

Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Union Agriculture Minister today addressed the G-20 Agriculture Ministers Meeting at Istanbul, Turkey. Addressing the meet Shri Singh said that there is need to direct itself more towards the accountability and monitoring of the ongoing initiatives rather adding more. Minister emphasized the need of research in agriculture sector to enhance the production and productivity which also address to contain the price volatility. Minister also focused on the various issues like food security, price volatility, reducing food waste and losses.

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Shri Singh apprised of the initiatives of the Government for the benefit of the farmers.

Union Agriculture Minister met Mr. Phil Hogan, EU Agriculture Commissioner; Mr. Gerry Ritz, his Canadian counterpart; Mr. Mehmet Mehdi Eker, Minister of Agriculture of Turkey; and Mr. Tom Vilsack, USDA Secretary on the sidelines of G-20 Meet.

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Agriculture Minister and Mr Hogan discussed issues of mutual interest. Shri Singh thanked Mr Hogan for lifting the ban on import of Indian mangoes and urged him to quickly resolve the issue of ban on import of other vegetables including Bitter Gourd, Snake Gourd, Okra etc from India.

While discussing issues of mutual interest with Mr Ritz, Union Minister sought the expertise of Canadian commercial enterprises in the low cost, energy efficient and ecologically sustainable cold chain technologies in India and invited Canadian investment in this sector. It was also agreed to quickly fix the date for the 4th meeting of the Joint Working Group with a view to take forward the cooperation between the two countries.

In interaction with Mr Vilsack, both the ministers reiterated the need for building upon the strong foundation in bilateral relations laid by recent visits of Prime Minister to US and the visit of US President to India. It was agreed to expedite the renewal of MoU between the two countries to take the cooperation forward. Mr Vilsack invited India to join the "Global Research Alliance "on Crop and Animal production as well as the "Climate Smart Alliance " and offered to write to Union AM outlining the action taken on both the initiatives .