Israel-India boost cooperation in post-harvest management

India and Israel have a strategic partnership in the field of agriculture, at the core of which are the Centers-of-Excellence (CoE), under the India-Israel Agricultural Project (IIAP). These centers are benefiting Indian farmers through demonstrating a value-chain aimed to increase quality, productivity and diversity of crops. The 22 CoEs across 9 Indian states are used as platforms to transfer Israeli technologies and know-how to Indian farmers. Within the Working Plan 2018-2020, Post-Harvest Management (PHM) is one of the key segments to be added to the value chain demonstrated in the CoEs. PHM refers to the stage of crop production immediately following harvest and it covers cleaning, grading, sorting, cooling and packaging.
Menashe Tamir, an Israeli-MASHAV expert on Post-Harvest Management, together with Dan Alluf- Counsellor, International Development Cooperation (MASHAV), Israel, conducted field-visits at four Centers-of-Excellence in Rajasthan (Kota), Haryana (Karnal) and Punjab (Hoshiarpur and Kartarpur) from May 27 to June 3, to share expertise on PHM solutions and define models of implementations.
On the occasion of the visit, Ambassador of Israel in India, Daniel Carmon said, “These Centers-of-Excellence are an integral part of India and Israel’s growing partnership. The visit of Menashe Tamir provided hands-on experience in establishing Post-Harvest Management solutions for a large range of horticulture crops. This will benefit Indian farmers as well as Indian consumers.”
One of the highlights of the visit was a “Brainstorming on Implementation of Post-Harvest Management under the IIAP” conducted at the Indo-Israel CoE for Citrus- Khannaura, Hoshiarpur, on May 30.
“Israel has successfully gained excellence in few areas of agriculture. We want to take this knowledge to Indian farmers. We are mapping the challenges and trying to address them. The objective of the project is to achieve higher yield, both in quantity and quality by using the resources like water, energy and land in an efficient manner,” Dan Alluf, Counsellor, MASHAV had said to this reported during a field visit.