CII AgroTech to see international participation

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today announced that the ninth edition of India’s only integrated agri fair, CII AgroTech 2010, will be held in Chandigarh from December 3 to December 6, 2010. AgroTech is India’s premier biennial agro technology and business fair with a large domestic and international participation and has this year attracted 225 exhibitors, including 63 foreign exhibitors from nine countries.

Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, is the partner ministry of the event to be hosted by Punjab and Haryana. The Food Expo and Apple Fest are being supported by Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, Food Tech and Livestock Expo are some other stalls on display. Canada, France, Germany, South Korea and the UK have set up their pavilions while companies from Australia, Italy, Spain and the US are also showcasing their products and services. South Korea and France have set up pavilions for the first time at AgroTech.

AgroTech 2010 will be formally inaugurated on December 4 by Sharad Pawar, Union Minister of Agriculture, Government of India. The CII officials apprised that Kisan Goshthis, which help educate farmers on the latest techniques and link them with corporates, are an important element of the show. Progressive farmers will share their success stories followed by a session on ‘Sustainable farming for small farmers’.

There would be live demo of soil testing, usage of tensiometers to save water, Emu birds, Quails, Turkeys, Guinea Fowls and Hydroponics machines. In addition, there will be sessions on natural resource management — soil and water conservation, Green House cultivation, organic farming etc. We also have a campaign on water conservation, jointly with Mahindra Swaraj, ‘Jal Sangram – Surakshit Jal, Sunhera Kal’ to educate the farmers on water management, a key element of sustainable farming.”

Talking about the other facets of AgroTech 2010, Gokul Patnaik, chairman, conferences AgroTech 2010, said, “Besides the expositions, we’ve four international conferences where we’d be deliberating on various aspects of ‘Rejuvenating Agriculture’. The conference topics are ‘Future of Indian agriculture Sustaining Indian agriculture growth’, ‘Agri infrastructure – Imperatives to growth’, ‘New drivers in the food processing sector’ and ‘Emerging opportunities in the dairy and poultry sector’. The Conferences have been designed to address the key issues in the context of Indian agriculture.”

According to Charu Mathur, Regional Director, CII northern region, “We are expecting a large number of farmers from the neighbouring States as well as from States like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra etc who will come and share their best practices with the entire farming community. We are happy that a number of women farmers are expected to attend AgroTech 2010, about 250 women farmers from Una District of Himachal Pradesh itself.”