By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEP 16, 2024: MINISTER of State for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Ram Nath Thakur led the Indian delegation along with Ambassador of India to Brazil Suresh Reddy and Joint Secretary Franklin L. Khobung, Department of Agriculture & Farmers during the bilateral meetings. A bilateral meeting between Thakur and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan Sakamoto was held on 12 September 2024, in Brazil.

Both sides expressed their commitment to cooperate in mutually beneficial areas including such as use of technology, food processing, cold storage etc, sustainability and productivity of agriculture in India also through private investment.

Market access issues were discussed where Indian Minister Thakur asked to expedite the market access of Indian Pomegranate and grapes in Japan while Japan Minister Sakamoto raised the market access of Japanese cedar.

A bilateral meeting between Thakur and Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil Host Carlos Favaro was held on 13 September 2024, in Brazil.

Favaro underscored learnings from Indian Presidency and friendly relation between two countries. Thakur congratulated Brazilian Presidency on successful completion of AWG meetings.

During the meeting, both sides discussed issues related to cooperation in science and technology, cooperation in ethanol production and market access.

Both sides agreed to cooperate in science and technology and expressed the hope that the Memorandum of Understanding between ICAR India and EMBRAPA Brazil would be completed before G20 leaders meeting in November. Brazil side showed commitment to cooperate in ethanol production technology which will help the climate change action.

India's seeks access to Brazilian market for its Sorghum, Rapeseed, Cotton, Wheat, Barley and Onion bulbs. Brazilian side seeks access to India market for Citrus etc. Ministers expressed optimism to resolve the pending issues which will remove the obstacle in trade.

A bilateral meeting between Thakur and Ms. Xochitl Torres Small, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, USA was held on 13 September 2024, in Brazil.

Both sides agreed to follow up action on USDA and MA&FW Dialogue initiative. Both sides agreed to take forward the cooperation in areas of Climate-smart agriculture; Agricultural productivity growth; Agricultural innovation; Forecasting & production reporting and Agriculture & crop risk protection and agricultural credit. US appreciated the concept note and it's continuing evolution.

USDA agreed to share learnings through visits in crop insurance sector. Thakur highlighted the market access issues of fruits and vegetables etc. US requested to expedite market access for Alfalfa hay fodder to India. Both sides agreed to resolve the pending issues related to market access as per agreed strategies.

A bilateral meeting between Indian delegation headed by Thakur and delegation headed by Ophelia Nick, Parliamentary State Secretary, Germany was held on 13 September 2024, in Brazil.

Thakur expressed the happiness on ongoing regular engagements of Indo-German Joint Working Group and expressed the hope that the next upcoming meeting of JWG will be fruitful. Ms. Ophelia Nick suggested to have the IND-GER working group parallel to the next Aahar food fair in New Delhi. Both sides agreed to progress on agroecology, technical exchanges, and cooperation through triangular development projects.

Both sides agreed to collaborate in the sectors such as application of Artificial Intelligence in farming and support to small farmers, agroecology and organic farming.  Ms. Ophelia Nick extended invitation to Thakur to participate in the Global forum for food and agriculture and the Agriculture ministers conference in Berlin.

A bilateral meeting between Indian delegation headed by Thakur and delegation headed by Daniel Zeichner, Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, UK was held on 13 September 2024, in Brazil.

Both sides expressed their interest to cooperate in transformation of agriculture food system into sustainable agriculture, research and science- precision breeding, gene editing, and extension services.

Zeichner appreciated the role of KVKs and ATMA that they are playing for taking science to farmers and showed interest to learn from the Indian model through joint workshop with ICAR and share UK's experience of Agritech centre. UK also showed interest to have an institutional mechanism to take the bilateral partnership in the agriculture sector forward.

A bilateral meeting between Indian delegation headed by Thakur and delegation headed by Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Spain H.E. Luis Planas was held on 13 September 2024, in Brazil.

Planas thanked Indian Minister for the approval of veterinary certificate for dairy products and expressed interest to engage on such protocols in future. He also showed interest to resolve the sanitary and veterinary certificate for meat and meat products and expressed hope to get confirmation of the validity of cold storage in transit for oranges.

Both sides desired to have cooperation in technology, new genomic techniques, practices and technology of water use efficiency, climate resilient agriculture, technical and scientific solutions for seeds and plants, and exchange between the research institutions of both the countries. Planas invited Thakur to visit Madrid.

A bilateral meeting between Indian delegation headed by Thakur and delegation headed by H. E Dr Amna Al Dahak, Ministry of Environment and Climate held on 12 September 2024, in Brazil.

Both sides expressed the need to increase trade in agriculture sector. Both sides agreed to discuss market access related issues by technical teams.

UAE showed interest to collaboration in research and technology, share experience on vertical farming, high yield technologies. 

Both sides also discussed the issues related to sustainable agriculture, resilient food systems.