7th Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Agriculture 06/19/2017

The 7th Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Agriculture, under the theme “BRICS: Innovating and Sharing to Power Agriculture”, hosted by the Chinese Minister of Agriculture Mr. Han Changfu, was held in Nangjing, China on 16 June, 2017. Mr. Shobhana Kumar Pattanayak, Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare led the Indian delegation which also comprised, Shri Ashish Kumar Bhutani, Joint Secretary, and Dr. A. Arunachalam, Principal Scientist in the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.

In his keynote speech, Agriculture Secretary Mr. Pattanayak outlined the progress made by India in agriculture and allied sectors and highlighted mechanisms for enhancing agricultural cooperation among BRICS members in ensuring accelerated agricultural development by fortifying agricultural research, investments and trade. Further, he reiterated that India is committed to providing an enabling environment for agricultural cooperation to enhance productivity and double farmer’s income in an inclusive manner.

BRICS Agriculture Ministers adopted a Joint Declaration that dwelt upon issues of food security and nutrition; climate smart agriculture and sustainable development; science, technology and innovation; investments and trade in agriculture, and also mechanisms of sharing of information, experiences, technologies and innovations for the cause of food security amongst the BRICS nations. BRICS Joint Action Plan for 2017-2020 was approved to further the intent of the Joint Declaration. In specific, the Joint Action Plan dwelt upon 5 priority areas viz., (i) accelerated agricultural development to enhance food security and nutrition, (ii) promoting cooperation and exchange on climate change for stronger agricultural resilience to national risks, (iii) strengthening technology innovation and demonstration for greater agricultural sustainability, (iv) improving safe agricultural trade and expanding agricultural investments and (v) strengthening, sharing and exchange of information for better ICT application in BRICS agriculture. The Ministers also adopted the BRICS Agricultural Development Report 2017.