G20 agriculture ministers' meet in Hyderabad from June 15-17: Kishan Reddy

The crucial G20 Agriculture Ministers' Meeting would be held in Hyderabad from June 15 to 17, Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy said on Monday.

Talking to reporters here, he said three meetings of the agriculture working group were held earlier in Indore, Chandigarh and Varanasi. The final meeting is in Hyderabad. Besides India, 29 other countries will participate in the three-day event.

G20 countries including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Canada, South Africa, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, USA and UK would attend. The ministers of nine guest countries, including Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Oman, Nigeria, Spain and Vietnam would also participate. "The agriculture ministers of 29 countries and high-level officers are going to participate in this meeting with Hyderabad as the venue. It will be held from 15th to 17th," he said. Besides the 29 countries, key persons from 10 international organisations would also participate in the meetings. The main agenda of the meeting includes food security, sustainable agriculture for nutritional food, agriculture development under the leadership of women, agriculture and biodiversity, and changes needed in agriculture sector to face climate change. The union tourism minister said the G20 meeting of ministers on tourism would be held in Goa on June 19, 20, 21 and 22. He said that the third G20 tourism working group meeting was successfully held recently in Srinagar despite the threat of terror groups and objections raised by Pakistan and others.

A declaration on tourism, named 'Goa roadmap' would be adopted at the G20 ministers meeting, the minister said.

Reddy, also minister for culture, said the final meeting of ministers on culture would be organised in Varanasi from July 24-26.