US, India to join on innovations in agri sector

India and the United States will collaborate in the areas of agricultural innovation, during President Barack Obama's visit to the country, which will increase food security for Indians and help bring green revolution in Africa, the White House has said.

"Agriculture would be one of the main focus areas of the presidential trip to India. The trip would discuss how innovation can support the kind of agriculture that allows people to have a broader food base," Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication said in response to questions at "Tuesday Talks", a live web cast from the White House on the President's 10-day Asia trip.

"That's the kind of cooperation we are going to announce in the course of the trip," he said, adding that USAID administrator Raj Shah and Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack were going on the trip.

In Mumbai, they would have a roundtable with some of their counterparts and some Indian farmers to discuss ways in which technology and innovation can help to increase food security for Indians.

"That includes things like technologies... That allow you to predict the weather so you can gear your crops towards more efficient use of your efforts and predict the kinds of weather that will allow you to enhance your food security; the kinds of technologies that will help farmers get their products to the market," Rhodes said.

"So there's a whole host of innovations and technologies that we want to focus on in the area of agricultural cooperation."

President Obama, in addition to roundtable, may likely to visit an expo where some Indian farmers would be highlighting these technologies.

"One additional exciting component of this is the high level of cooperation between the US and India can support continued efforts in India to lift people out of poverty, but they can also help people around the world," he noted.

"US has been part of Food Security Initiative in Africa, where we are trying to apply technology, innovation, capacity building to help African farmers lift their countries and their peoples into a higher standard of living.

"We see great potential for the US and India to cooperate, not just within India but in African countries as well, to apply the extraordinary lessons learned within India and the extraordinary innovations made by Indians to support development in other parts of the world," he said.

"So it's an exciting collaboration, both in terms of extending the progress that's been made within India and also extending that progress into parts of Africa that, of course, are in bad need of development," Rhodes said.