CM reviews arrangements for World Agri. Congress

Hyderabad, Oct 23 : Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Wednesday reviewed the arrangements for the World Agricultural Forum Congress and Agri-Tech Trade Fair with Ministers and officials at the Secretariat.

The World Agricultural Congress and Trade Fair will be held from 4th to 7th November, 2013 at HICC, Hyderabad. The Chief Minister asked the officials to take all steps particularly security, traffic and delegates welfare and also ensure farmers participation in the World Agricultural Congress. He said the Congress and Fair will be an opportunity for the farmers of the State to interact with the world delegates and get a first-hand knowledge of the best practices and methodologies in the world. Agriculture Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana, Tourism Minister Vatti Vasantha Kumar, Cooperation Minister Kasu Krishna Reddy, Chief Secretary Dr. P.K.Mohanty, Principal Secretaries SK Joshi (MA&UD), L V Subramanyam (Health), Dr P V Ramesh (Finance), Anil C. Puneetha (Agriculture), Agriculture Commissioner Madhusudan Rao, I&PR Commissioner Dana Kishore and other officials attended the meeting.

The theme of the Congress is “Re-shaping Agriculture for a sustainable future: Focus on small farm holders”. The Chief Minister said that the State Government will bear the delegates fee for the participation of the best or model (Adarsh) farmers and representatives of farmers organisations including from fisheries, poultry, dairy, horticulture etc. Officials informed that about 5,000 farmers from 22 districts will be brought at the organisers expense and will be given free entry to the Congress, Trade Fair, free food and accommodation. They said they expected about 300 delegates from all over the world.

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will inaugurate the Congress on the 5th of November along with the Chief Minister. All Committees have been formed with officers from the department for supervising the necessary arrangements. They said permissions have been obtained from all Ministries concerned and the necessary Halls at HICC have been booked and there will be about 150 stalls at the Agri tech-trade fair. The Fair has segments of national and international agri-service providers from the sectors of agriculture, horticulture, micro irrigation systems, dairy, fisheries, solar power, post harvesting management, fertilisers, pesticides, farm equipment manufacturers, dry land farming and related farm machinery, food processing and value addition and universities and research labs etc., INN