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VADODARA: The Dutch government is jointly working with its counterpart in India to set up ten centres of excellence (CoEs) across the country to help raise agriculture outputs.
Of these 10 CoEs, Gujarat may house a CoE on potato or horticulture. Ambassador of the Kingdom of Netherlands to India Alphonsus Stoelinga, who was on a one-day visit to the city, said this on Wednesday while interacting with media persons here.
"In India, we are setting up agriculture CoEs through public private partnership. In Gujarat, we are exploring a CoE for potatoes or horticulture while in Kerala it will be set up for horticulture. Similarly, in North-East we are exploring a centre for cattle, pork while in other states it will be set up for banana ripening, dairy and piggery," said Stoelinga.
"As India is looking to double its food production, it has to intensify its agriculture to enhance output but at the same time prevent losses in the food supply chain," he said, adding that the Indo-Dutch joint initiative is about Indian and Dutch authorities along with the private sector sharing technology know-how and developing skills to double food output.
During his visit, Stoelinga inaugurated a plant of Royal DSM, a Dutch multinational company active in health, nutrition and materials, at Savli.
Later, he also visited M S University (MSU) campus where he interacted with deans, principals, directors of cells and nodal officers of the Office of International Affairs in which he discussed future prospects of academic collaboration between MSU and universities and institutes of Netherlands.
"India and the Netherlands are very important economic partners for each other. India is the fifth largest source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Netherlands and the same is the case of Netherlands which is also the fifth large source of FDI in India," said Stoelinga.
Speaking on the bilateral trade, he said India's exports to the Netherlands are around 10 billion Euros a year while its imports from the Netherlands are nearly 3.5 billion Euros a year.
"India has an advantage of 6.5 billion Euros but we are also looking at reducing this gap," he said, adding that Indo-Dutch relations are over 400 years old.
"Netherlands identifies India as an important economic partner and we believe that India will be the biggest talent pool in the world," he said, adding that most Dutch companies have their R&D centres located at Bangalore because of availability of good engineers.
Stoelinga also offered help to Indian government and business sectors in the areas of reclamation of ocean land, erection of cold storages and supply chain management of agricultural products.
"We have explored collaboration in the fields of performing art, life sciences and nutrition. Also, our faculties have proposed to establish faculty and student exchange programmes along with joint research activities with universities of Netherlands," MSU's officer on special duty (registrar) Amit Dholakia said.
Netherlands to set up 10 centres of excellence in India - The Times of India
Of these 10 CoEs, Gujarat may house a CoE on potato or horticulture. Ambassador of the Kingdom of Netherlands to India Alphonsus Stoelinga, who was on a one-day visit to the city, said this on Wednesday while interacting with media persons here.
"In India, we are setting up agriculture CoEs through public private partnership. In Gujarat, we are exploring a CoE for potatoes or horticulture while in Kerala it will be set up for horticulture. Similarly, in North-East we are exploring a centre for cattle, pork while in other states it will be set up for banana ripening, dairy and piggery," said Stoelinga.
"As India is looking to double its food production, it has to intensify its agriculture to enhance output but at the same time prevent losses in the food supply chain," he said, adding that the Indo-Dutch joint initiative is about Indian and Dutch authorities along with the private sector sharing technology know-how and developing skills to double food output.
During his visit, Stoelinga inaugurated a plant of Royal DSM, a Dutch multinational company active in health, nutrition and materials, at Savli.
Later, he also visited M S University (MSU) campus where he interacted with deans, principals, directors of cells and nodal officers of the Office of International Affairs in which he discussed future prospects of academic collaboration between MSU and universities and institutes of Netherlands.
"India and the Netherlands are very important economic partners for each other. India is the fifth largest source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Netherlands and the same is the case of Netherlands which is also the fifth large source of FDI in India," said Stoelinga.
Speaking on the bilateral trade, he said India's exports to the Netherlands are around 10 billion Euros a year while its imports from the Netherlands are nearly 3.5 billion Euros a year.
"India has an advantage of 6.5 billion Euros but we are also looking at reducing this gap," he said, adding that Indo-Dutch relations are over 400 years old.
"Netherlands identifies India as an important economic partner and we believe that India will be the biggest talent pool in the world," he said, adding that most Dutch companies have their R&D centres located at Bangalore because of availability of good engineers.
Stoelinga also offered help to Indian government and business sectors in the areas of reclamation of ocean land, erection of cold storages and supply chain management of agricultural products.
"We have explored collaboration in the fields of performing art, life sciences and nutrition. Also, our faculties have proposed to establish faculty and student exchange programmes along with joint research activities with universities of Netherlands," MSU's officer on special duty (registrar) Amit Dholakia said.
Netherlands to set up 10 centres of excellence in India - The Times of India
