India-Israel to move towards creating Villages of Excellence

New Delhi, Jan 28 (UNI) Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar expressed satisfaction at the functioning of 29 Centres of Excellence in 12 States as part of the Indo-Israel Agriculture Project and said that 150 villages around these Centres would be converted into Villages of Excellence with technical assistance from Israel. He said this during a meeting with Israeli Ambassador Naor Gilon. Tomar congratulated Gilon on taking over as the Ambassador of Israel to India and expressed happiness on the completion of 30 years of diplomatic relations between India and Israel. The Minister expressed satisfaction at the functioning of 29 Centres of Excellence in 12 States which are producing more than 25 million vegetable plants, over 387 thousand quality fruit plants and can train more than 1.2 lakh farmers per year. Tomar said that it has been decided to convert 150 villages around the Centres of Excellence into Villages of Excellence with technical assistance from Israel, out of which 75 villages are being taken up in the first year to commemorate the 75th year of India’s independence where India and Israel will work together. He also highlighted the various schemes that have been launched by the Government of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the welfare of farmers, including PM-Kisan, Agri-Infrastructure Fund, formation of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations, Schemes for promotion of organic farming, natural farming and soil health cards etc, an official statement said. The Israeli Ambassador expressed satisfaction over the functioning of the Centres of Excellence, and said these CoEs are a great example of cooperation between the two countries. He appreciated the working of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutes and showed interest in further collaboration with ICAR and making available the latest technologies available with Israel. He proposed the certification of CoEs to further enhance the standards and quality of services being provided to the farmers. He also invited Union Minister Tomar to visit Israel. Tomar appreciated the Ambassador’s proposals, and agreed to work on them. Centers of Excellence (CoE) are advanced/intensive agriculture farms for knowledge transfer of Israeli Agro-Technology tailored to the local conditions. The Indo-Israel Villages of Excellence will focus on establishing modern agriculture infrastructure, support farmers with capacity building activities and enhance market linkages to optimise profitability of the farmers. The Indo-Israel Agriculture Project is aimed at introducing crop diversity, increasing productivity and optimizing water use efficiency.