India and Uzbekistan have agreed to deepen ongoing cooperation in the agriculture sector between both countries. To make this happen, a discussion took place between the Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, Jamshid Khodjayev, and the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar in New Delhi on Thursday.
Greeting Khodjayev on being appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, Tomar said that Khodjayev’s previous experience of being the country’s agriculture minister would be of great help in his new role. Tomar said that the two countries have very good diplomatic and trade relations. While India’s diplomatic ties with Uzbekistan complete 30 years, for India it is the occasion of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. Tomar expressed happiness that special attention has been paid to mutual cooperation in the agriculture sector. He informed that India has decided to provide market access for grapes, plums and sweet cherries from the Central Asian country, notification for which would be published soon, while India has received approval from the Uzbek side for the export of mangoes, banana and soybean oilcake, for which Tomar thanked Khodjayev. Tomar urged the Uzbek side to expedite the permission for the import of pomegranate, potato, papaya and wheat from India.
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Tomar said, the agriculture sector is developing rapidly and work is being done with great enthusiasm on various aspects in the interest of farmers. Due to the farmer-friendly policies of the government, scientists and farmers, agricultural production has increased significantly in the country. Besides, agricultural education and research in India is also in a very mature state.
Earlier, Khodjayev, congratulating India on the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, said that India’s experience in agriculture is very good, which Uzbekistan would like to know about including support to farmers. “Like India, we want to change the course of agriculture in Uzbekistan, for which we want to learn from India,” he said. In this regard, he urged India’s agricultural research institutes to pass on the benefits of research and development to Uzbekistan. Appreciating the growing trend of digitisation in Indian agriculture, Khodjayev called for similar digitisation in Uzbekistan, along with Indian companies. He also praised India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) and Minimum Support Price (MSP) system and spoke about learning from India’s experience.
