)
Israel will inaugurate 6-8 centres of excellence for vegetables and fruits in different parts of India in the next three months, the country's ambassador Alon Ushpiz has said.
At present, the two countries have an agreement on agriculture cooperation projects in vegetables and fruits. Israel aims to set up 29 centres by 2015. So far, two centres of excellence have been inaugurated in Haryana.
"Another 6-8 centres are at various stages of development in Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka. They will be inaugurated by end of this year," Ushpiz told PTI.
The objective behind the Centre of Excellence is to provide live demonstration of Israeli agricultural technology and know-how to the farmers, he said.
The experts at centres show farmers how to implement and adapt Israeli technologies to drastically multiply production and to significantly raise quality of the produce.
Stating that Israel is also known for its expertise in dairy industry, Ushpiz said the country is keen to collaborate with India in dairy sector to boost milk production.
"We are interested in dairy sector. We have expertise in raising milk productivity in extreme temperatures and limited water resources," he said.
Although India is the world's largest milk producer at 128 million tonnes, the per capita milk output is lowest in the world. An Israeli cow yields average 12,000 litres of milk per year, as against about 3,000 litres in India.
Israel is in the initial stage of discussion with Indian authorities for a cooperation in the dairy sector.
Indo-Israel Centre of Excellence are being set up as per the Agriculture Cooperation Agreement signed between the two countries in 2008 and the three-year work plan finalised between the Agriculture Ministries of India and Israel in 2011.
