Second India-US-Africa triangular agricultural training program launched

KOLKATA: The United States and India, on Tuesday (July 30), launched the second India-US-Africa triangular agricultural training program supported by the US government’s global hunger and food security initiative Feed the Future. This partnership aims to improve agricultural productivity and support market insti-tutions in Kenya, Liberia, and Malawi, according to an email statement from the US Consulate General’s office in Kolkata.

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Food Security Office director Bahiru Duguma kicked off this initiative. Mr Duguma explained that, as part of the broader US-India global partnership, the triangular engagement “will share proven innovations from India’s private and public sector to address food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty in the target African countries.”

The program will train 180 agricultural professionals from these three African countries by providing marketing and extension management training at the Chaudhury Charan Singh National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (NIAM) in Jaipur and at the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management in Hyderabad. The initiative, led by USAID and NIAM, is part of a three-year training program and one of several activities resulting from the global strategic partnership announced by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barak Obama in 2010.