Israel to invest Rs 40,000 crore in MP

BHOPAL: Israel has evinced interest to make a whopping investment of nearly Rs 40,000 crore in sectors like agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture and dairy in Madhya Pradesh.

"A team of Indo-Israel Chamber of Commerce led by Embassy of Israel Economic Counsellor Mouneer Agbariya recently met state government officials and showed interest to invest nearly Rs 40,000 crore in Madhya Pradesh," PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry State Director Rajendra Kothari told PTI on Tuesday.

Under agriculture investments, the Israelis want to open an agriculture university in Madhya Pradesh to train farmers, students and officers, improve productivity and bring it to the international level in next 10 years, Kothari said.

Israel is keen to invest in agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture and dairy sectors in Madhya Pradesh, he said. He said the team held meetings with Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Cooperative Department, PS Horticulture and Food Processing and Director Horticulture adding that the second-round of talks regarding investments will take place in March.

Kothari said that the Israel government has cleared the overseas investments of its private concerns. He said that Israel was doing farming and dairy business with minimum resources and maximum technology and its productivity was at international level.

Kothari said that though Israel records a scant rainfall of 10 inches, its agriculture and farm production was very high.

He said that an Israeli cow gives 40 litres milk per day whereas the bovine milk production capacity in Madhya Pradesh was just two litres a day.