India to send teams of agriculture experts to African continents

NEW DELHI: India has decided to send teams of farm experts to African countries to explore ways of helping the "dark continent" to improve its agricultural practises.

Indian Council of Agriculture Research ( ICAR) teams would visit Ethiopia, South Africa, Zambia and other countries of the African continent next month.

"This is to study agriculture there and explore role for India to help train manpower in the farm sector there', Deputy Director General (DDG), Education, ICAR, Arvind Kumar told PTI.

The Indian teams would make trips to agricultural fields in these countries and interact with the farm scientists to get a first-hand knowledge of the cultivation processes there, he said.

A report would be submitted to the government after the trip to chalk out how best India could help African nations improve there agriculture, the ICAR official said.

According to the reports, thousands of acres of land in the mainland and coastal areas of African sub-continent are lying unutilised due to shortage of skilled human resource in agriculture sector.

The reports suggest that African agriculture is in crisis as most of the farmers are unable to feed themselves and have been in this situation for many decades now.

As part of the past Indo-African programme, 49 students of African origin are studying presently in different agriculture universities in India.

Kumar said the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his tour of Africa has announced that 75 students from African continents would be enrolled every year from now onwards in varied agri universities to learn about latest know hows in the sector.