India, Israel Opened Centre for Floriculture in Tamil Nadu

New Delhi: At Thally in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu, to set up a centre for excellence in floriculture, India and Israel are came together.

The centre, the first agro-technology development centre set up with Israel’s assistance in the State and officially inaugurated on Thursday, 7th Dec 2017. Gil Haskel, head of Israel’s agency for international development cooperation Mashav;

The centre at Thally and a similar centre planned for vegetables to be established in Dindigul form the part of a three-year Indo-Israel agricultural partnership signed between Mashav and mission for integrated development of horticulture of the Agriculture Ministry. The Dindigul centre, specialising in vegetables such as capsicum, cucumber and tomatoes, is expected to be launched in January next year.

These centres can not only develop agricultural practices suitable for selected geographical regions, but also can transfer the best practices to farmers in and around.

Haskel said, “By the end of the project, we plan to have 30 such Indo-Israel centres of excellence in agriculture in India. Currently, we have 20 such centres in nine States.”

Dan Alluf, an Israeli Embassy official said that, more such centres of excellence are planned in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in near future. Centres in Karnataka would come up in Dharwar, Kolar and Bagalkot and would focus on vegetables, mangoes and pomegranate, respectively. The centre in Andhra Pradesh would come up in Kuppam and would work on both floriculture and vegetable research.

SourceSource: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/