A comprehensive five-day workshop on Irrigation & Fertigation, hosted by the Embassy of Israel in cooperation with MASHAV, Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation, concluded at the Indo-Israel Centre of Excellence in Karnal on Thursday.
As part of the Indo-Israel Agricultural Cooperation, more than 40 Project Officers, Heads of State Horticulture Departments, Center of Excellence Directors and Irrigation specialists from the 29 Indo- Israel Centre's of Excellence attended this workshop. Two Irrigation experts from Israel, Moshe Broner and Yoram Eisenstadt led the workshop.
The topics that were covered in this workshop included Soil water plant climate relationship, Applied hydraulics, Micro irrigation, principles, System components, Water quality principles, Filter types and filtration system selection of filter, Filter demo, Plant nutrition principles, Fertilizers for fertigation, Fertilizer application (Injectors), Fertigation & Monitoring, Irrigation control, Water management, Soil & Water salinity Management, Agronomic parameters for selecting proper dripper, Irrigation system assembling, Soilless Culture and Advanced Irrigation Technology.
The 11 states that participated in the workshop include Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Mizoram and West Bengal representing five different clusters under Indo-Israel Agriculture Project (IIAP): vegetables, citrus, mango, pomegranates and flowers.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the workshop, Israel's Deputy Ambassador to India, Mr. Yahel Vilan said, "We are very proud of this cooperation between India and Israel. Four years ago, when we were at the initial planning stages of the second phase of the Indo- Israel Agricultural cooperation, we could not have imagined how well it would develop and the immense impact it would have on the Indian farmers. Having here today, Project officers from all the Centres of Excellence, sharing best practices with our Israeli experts is the proof that in Agriculture cooperation, we've gone a long way. Nevertheless, the potential to continue this is even greater."
Under the current framework of Indo-Israel Agriculture Cooperation Project, Israel has been contributing its best practices and knowledge, and providing capacity building through such professional training programs being conducted both in Israel and in India. To achieve this goal of the cooperation agreement, it was decided to establish 'Agricultural Centers of Excellence' (CoE), funded by both the Federal Government NHM and by individual state governments, that are also responsible to allocate land and professional manpower. So far, 29 Centres of Excellence in 10 states across India are in various stages of development.
India and Israel have signed on a joint declaration "the Indo-Israel Agricultural Cooperation Project entering its third phase" during Vibrant Gujarat 2015 in order to extend the existing cooperation. According to this agreement, both countries will establish a 'joint team' to finalise the 'third phase' of the three years action plan (2015-2018) for further strengthening and widening the scope of bilateral agricultural development cooperation.