Obama for more Indo-US linking on agriculture

Says lessons that are being learnt in India in relationship to technology are also applicable to the United States. US President Barack Obama said the US and India can accelerate cooperation in agriculture. He said the US can learn lessons from India in irrigation systems and low-cost farm machinery.

He was interacting through video conferencing with a group of farmers and villagers of Kanpura village of Ajmer in Rajasthan, at the agriculture and food security expo organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry at the St Xavier’s College. Much of what the President said could, however, not be heard because of poor audio quality.

Obama heard villagers talking about various e-governance initiatives in their village and its positive impact. He said technology was essential to increasing the productivity of Indian farmers, allowing them to be more profitable, too.

‘’The lessons that are being learnt in India in relationship to technology are also applicable to the United States. We are in the process of diversifying agriculture in the US and part of our diversification effort is to create more local food systems, where we better connect local food producers with local consumers,” Obama said.

He said India and the US would increase cooperation in extending technology in a low-cost and effective manner.

Sam Pitroda, advisor to the Prime Minister on public information, infrastructure & innovation, was present to help Obama understand how information technology was changing agriculture and governance in India’s villages.

On the other side at Kanpura village was Union minister of state for IT and Ajmer’s Member of Parliament, Sachin Pilot, who acted as a bridge between the US President and the villagers. Meanwhile, as reported, part of the St Xavier’s was converted into a village farm and agri expo, where Obama spoke with the representatives of Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, Ingersoll Rand, Indian Farmers Fertilizers Cooperative Ltd and Jain irrigation on their innovations.