Talking food security and development, President says local innovations in agriculture can help India "leapfrog" from the 20th century to the 21st, and Feed The FutureIn Mumbai, under a blazing hot sun on Sunday morning, President Obama visited the Agriculture and Food Security Exposition at St. Xavier College. He'd just danced for Diwali with First Lady Michelle Obama, and now he was ready to dance between corn cobs and digital technology. Designed to demonstrate the potential for a US-India partnership, the Expo was sponsored by USAID, the USDA, and the Confederation of Indian Industries. (Above: The President with corn farmers; Sec. Vilsack is at far left in the photo)
Display booths featured soil testing, low-cost mobile phones for rural areas, “drudgery reducing technologies for women,” an equipment manufacturer that makes lighter, smaller farm tools for women, PepsiCo touting its contracts with 80,000 potato farmers, and Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a subsidiary of DuPont, one of India's leading suppliers of genetically modified seeds. The President was accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to India Tim Roemer, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, USAID administrator Rajiv Shah, and Hari S. Bhartia, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CFII).
“Look at this. It’s like an infomercial. I want one of those,” the President said, as he watched a woman farmer shell peanuts with a simple, metal machine and strip corn cobs in a small metal tube.
He turned to reporters and said: “This reduces women’s labor time for food processing up to 30%—remarkable,” before taking a turn stripping corn with the device.
The Expo was something of a launch party for the CII Food and Agriculture Centre of Excellence, which is "dedicated to building efficiencies across the agriculture value chain from farm to fork and improving food security."
Shah was in country rounding up partnerships for USAID's $3.5 billion Feed the Future program to reduce global poverty, hunger and malnutrition, which was announced last May, and will focus on twenty different countries that receive US development dollars. Before leaving for India, Shah discussed food security initiaitves at the State Department; video here.
>Links to all posts about the President's India trip are here
The President's Ag teleconferencePresident Obama was led to a cooler, sheltered area with overhead fans, where there was a screen set up with a video link to a remote village. The President spoke with excited farmers
“In a sense we have 1.1 billion people who are connected,” Sam Pitroda, an adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, told the President. He rattled off statistics about Indian tech infrastructure, including mentioning one million kilometers of fiber optic cable. (Above: The President waves at villagers during the teleconference; Pitroda is beside him)
“We want broadband to villages for education, accountability, open government,” Petroda said, saying the government wants all of them linked by fiber optics. “We believe this will really create a new India.”
From the village, inside an enclosed room, a legislator in white with a bright red turban spoke first. He discussed health IT, telemedicine. A woman presented her son who had just received vaccinations.
“It doesn’t look like he was that happy to get the shots though,” the President said. “It’s OK. Malia and Sasha don’t like getting shots either.”
“In the United States, we are trying to do some of the same things you are doing, trying to make government more transparent, trying to make government more accountable, trying to make government more efficient,” President Obama said.
He suggested India may be able to “leapfrog” 20th century means of delivering government services “and jump straight to the 21st century.”
“I want to congratulate all of you for doing some terrific work.”
The screen then flashed to the crowd outside. At first, the audio didn’t connect. Then there was a lot of cheers and lots of waving. The President exited to attend a Town Hall with students, where he spoke, accompanied by Mrs. Obama.
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rom the press release for the Expo:The Expo showcased innovative technologies developed through Indo-US cooperation that have touched the lives of millions of farmers in India. The exhibiting companies included Mahindra & Mahindra; PepsiCo; Aries Agro; Pioneer Hybrid-Dupont; Digital Green; IFFCO-Airtel; Central Institute of Agriculture Engineering, Bhopal; ITC; Jain Irrigation Systems and Ingersoll Rand. (Above: President Obama looks at an exhibit; Vilsack is at left in yellow, Shah is over the President's right shoulder)
The highlight of the Expo was the launching of the CII Food and Agriculture Centre of Excellence (CII-FACE). CII-FACE shall be dedicated to building efficiencies across the agriculture value chain from farm to fork and improving food security.
CII-FACE will work with farmers, companies, institutions and NGOs to bring about a quantum jump in agricultural production and productivity, enhance economic value addition, act as an information hub for sharing of global best practices, and undertake research across key segments in the Agriculture sector.
With technical support from USAID, the CII-FACE will endeavor to adapt and apply global best practices as well as information systems and technology to the Indian market, thereby, positioning itself as the Premier Knowledge Hub in the field of Food & Agriculture in India.
Prior to this, a Roundtable was held at the same venue to discuss the importance of innovative practices in enhancing agricultural productivity through Indo-US Cooperation which was attended by secretary Thomas J Vilsack, US Department of Agriculture; Dr Rajiv Shah, Administrator, USAID and a group of Indian CEOs, NGOs and some farmer groups.
The White House noted that PepsiCo has partnered with 80,000 Indian potato farmers to buy their crops and gives 15 percent in after-market profits back if they use provided fertilizer and seeds. Pioneer Hybrid is billed as "the leading provider of enhanced seeds" to India for more than 30 years."
*Corn photo by Reuters, teleconference photo by Pete Souza/White House; bottom photo from Mumbai Mirror
