First batch graduates from India-US-Africa agriculture training programme

A graduation ceremony here Friday marked the completion of the first training programme on agricultural marketing management under the India-US-Africa Triangular Training Program.

Presiding over the ceremony for 30 visiting African agriculture professionals at the Chaudhury Charan Singh National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (NIAM), US Ambassador to India Nancy J. Powell said: "The successful completion of this training program is a concrete example of the growing relationship between India and Africa and the emerging peer-to-peer relationship between India and the United States in addressing global food insecurity"

A total of 180 African agricultural professionals from Kenya, Liberia, and Malawi will be trained over the next two years at NIAM in Jaipur and at the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) in Hyderabad.

The three-year India-US-Africa triangular partnership programme will share proven innovations from India's private and public sectors to address food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty in the target countries.

The first triangular partnership in agricultural training was inaugurated at MANAGE, Hyderabad, in January 2013 for 30 trainees from Africa.

India has emerged as a hub for low-cost, effective local innovations to deal with challenges arising from factors like climate change, shrinking natural resources, decline in cultivable land and rising demand for food.

During President Barack Obama's visit to India in 2010, both the countries had agreed to use their expertise in agricultural capacity-building to extend food security to interested third countries.