India chairs BRICS to strengthen agro biodiversity for food and nutrition security

NEW DELHI, 16 August 2021: The Ministers of Agriculture of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Russian Federation, the People's Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa deliberated virtually on the theme “BRICS Partnership for Strengthening Agro Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Security”.

The implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development noted that BRICS countries are well-positioned to take a leading role in helping to achieve the objectives of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals to eradicate hunger and poverty.

The strong agricultural research base in BRICS countries and the need to harness and share knowledge, facilitate the transfer of technologies from lab to land to provide improved solutions for enhanced productivity, especially in the face of climate change, maintaining agrobiodiversity and ensuring sustainable use of natural resources was acknowledged.

BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) Agriculture Research Platform has been developed by India to promote cooperation in the areas of agricultural research, extension, technology transfer, training, and capacity building.

The intention to make the BRICS Agriculture Research Platform functional and encourage research cooperation to improve the use and application of agricultural technologies for meeting the needs of producers and processors were also expressed.

The Joint declaration of the eleventh meeting of BRICS and Action Plan for 2021-24 for agricultural cooperation of BRICS countries and BRICS Agriculture Research Platform were discussed in depth. This BRICS Working Group meeting will endorse the Action Plan of 2021-24 for adoption in the BRICS meeting.

Sanjay Agarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Abhilaskha Likhi, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Alaknanda Dayal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare attended the virtual meeting of the BRICS working group held on 12 -13 August 2021 at Sushma Swaraj Bhawan, New Delhi.