The meeting was co-chaired by Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Agriculture Ministers of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam also took part in the meeting.
Tomar, in his opening remarks during the meeting, reiterated PM Narendra Modi's vision of keeping ASEAN at the center of India's Act East Policy. He also emphasized on mutually close regional cooperation with ASEAN to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth for agricultural development in the region.
Underlining the importance of millet (nutritional-cereals) as a nutritious food and the international nutritional-cereal year 2023, Tomar urged the ASEAN member nations to support India’s efforts in increasing the production, processing, value addition, and consumption of millets.
He said that India will promote nutritious cereal products for the health and nutrition of the people. Nutritious cereals help in the creation of nutritious, with low resource requirements and more efficient agri-food systems.
The progress in the implementation of various programs and activities under the Medium-Term Action Plan of ASEAN-India Cooperation (Year 2021-2025) was reviewed during the meeting. The meeting also hailed the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-India relations.
Besides this, the commitment to ASEAN-India cooperation in agriculture and forestry was reiterated. It was said that in order to mitigate the unprecedented impact of the pandemic by ensuring a seamless flow of safe and nutritious agricultural products to ASEAN and India, it is important to take continuous measures under ASEAN-India cooperation for the implementation of post-pandemic recovery.
Tomar reiterated to strengthen India's cooperation with ASEAN in food security, nutrition, climate change adaptation, digital farming, nature-friendly agriculture, food processing, value chain, agricultural marketing and capacity building.
