Mr. Donal Brown, Associate Vice President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), called on Dr. Devesh Chaturvedi, Secretary of Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) at Krishi Bhawan in New Delhi today. During the meeting, Mr Brown appreciated India’s role as a founding member of IFAD, and longstanding and productive partnership with IFAD. Mr. Brown briefed the Secretary about IFAD’s collaborative projects with state governments, particularly in the North Eastern and Himalayan regions, focusing on building climate-resilient agricultural value chains; empowering women, youth, tribal communities; supporting marginalized farmers; and strengthening rural infrastructure.

During the meeting Agriculture Secretary Shri Devesh Chaturvedi highlighted the Ministry’s key priorities, including food and nutritional security, climate-resilient agriculture, sustainable farming practices, and improving farmer incomes. He also stressed the importance of ensuring the sustainability of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), utilizing Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to support agriculture, promoting integrated farming systems, and fostering agricultural entrepreneurship through scaling up innovative, cost-effective solutions. He also noted IFAD’s continued support for integrated farming models, FPOs engagement, entrepreneurship development and co-financing initiatives.

Discussion were held to identify further area of collaboration based on Ministry’s key priorities to prepare the Country Strategy Plan of IFAD.

The IFAD delegation included Ms. Pieternel Marianne Boogaard, Managing Director, Office of Technical Delivery; Mr. Abdelkarim Sma, Country Director, Ms. Meera Mishra, Country Programme Coordinator; and Ms. Elisabeth Steinmayr, Programme Officer. The Indian side included Ms. Maninder Kaur Dwivedi, Additional Secretary (DA&FW), the Joint Secretary (IC), Joint Secretary (Marketing) and representatives from NABARD.

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MG/KSR

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