Experts, delegates from abroad to attend Mohali agri meet

The summit likely to offer a platform to transform the destiny of millions of farmers

Eminent agriculture experts and delegates from Canada, Pakistan, the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, and the US would participate in the country's first Progressive Punjab Agriculture Summit (PPAS) in Mohali, on February 16-19.

The summit is likely to offer a platform to transform the destiny of millions of farmers, especially the small and marginal ones, by evolving consensus to chalk out a pro-farmer action plan for the agriculture development in the country.

Disclosing this here on Wednesday, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office said the Saskatchewan (Canada) Minister of Agriculture, Lyle Stewart; Agriculture Minister of Pakistan Punjab Furrukh Javed; British Deputy High Commissioner, North West India, David Lelliott; Director of Netherlands Agro, Food & Technology Centre (NAFC) Marijn Leijten; Australian First Secretary Chris King; and Director-General of International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre, US, Thomas Lumpkin, would be among the delegates. The Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister would be accompanied by a delegation of 20 businessmen.

The spokesperson said world famous agriculture scientist and plant breeder Gurdev Singh Khush, Director General of Indian Council of Agriculture Research S Ayyappan, Former Chairman of Commission for Agriculture Costs & Prices T Haque, Director of National Centre for Agriculture Economics & Policy Research Ramesh Chand, Former Director General of Indian Council of Agriculture Research R S Parodha would throw light on various aspects of agriculture production, marketing, value-addition and scope of synergy between agriculture and agro-processing. Several industrial houses would also participate in the summit by putting up stalls.

The summit was an outcome of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's efforts to help distressed farmers.

Nearly 50,000 farmers from Punjab and 5,000 from West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and J&K would participate.