CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (PIA)--There is a lot of scope for collaboration in the agriculture sector as food security has become critical post-pandemic phase, said His Excellency (HE) Shambu S. Kumaran, Ambassador of India to the Philippines during a press conference here.

As a partner country during the Mindanao Food Congress hosted by the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Oro Chamber), October 26-28, 2022 at Limketkai Luxe Hotel, Kumaran said, “We see this as a beginning of more regular engagement and very much looking forward to the Oro Chamber forming a delegation to go to India soon maybe next year.”

He added that they are happy to support them [Oro Chamber] and have their companies visit some of the Indian leading companies and meet on a business-to-business level.

There is a need for state support given the central importance of agriculture in terms of addressing hunger and poverty, social stability and food security, the state cannot hold itself back, he said.

“In India, what we have done is obviously providing good degree of support. We try to introduce more and more capital, financial tools from the banks, and other channels because it is not possible to use only budgetary resources to support farmers,” he said.

Kumaran thinks each country will have to find its way.

“In India, we don’t want to sound restrictive or we don’t want to sound like we have the answers. What we can do is share what we have done,” he shared.

He said there is value in creating enabling conditions, like crop insurance, financial support to farmers, and support prices, which will enable farmers to realize the certain value of their output and inputs in terms of seeds, fertilizers, and increasingly using digital technology, particularly agri-tech which is trying to elevate productivity.

The challenge is really to produce in an affordable and climate-sensitive way, ecologically sensitive way. This is a challenge, he explained because clearly, the agricultural practices that were followed for many years were not entirely on this basis.

“So one of the areas that we are looking into is multi-cropping,” he said.

According to him, it is not enough to grow one crop, which is why India is supporting their farmers with other interventions like animal husbandry, and dairy activity as supplementary income. (JMORucat/PIA10)