East-West Seed, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Embassy of the Netherlands in India jointly orgsed a webinar on Friday titled 'How to lift India's smallholder farmers out of poverty' with three distinguished World Food Laureates and giants of agriculture, nutrition and innovation, Dr Simon Groot, Dr Rattan Lal, and Dr Surinder Vasal.
Dr Simon Groot, the founder of East-West Seed, laid the Dutch vegetable seed industry's foundation. He was awarded the World Food Prize in 2019.
Dr Rattan Lal, an awardee of the World Food Prize in 2020, serves as Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science and founding Director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at The Ohio State University (OSU).
Dr Surinder Vasal is a distinguished scientist, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico, and an awardee of the World Food Prize in 2000.
The press release stated, "The session was moderated by Meghna Ravishankar, Director, International Borlaug Dialogue, The World Food Prize Foundation and the keynote address was from Marten van den Berg, Ambassador of the Netherlands to India. The webinar's premise was aimed at spotlighting each of the World Food Prize laureates' exceptional, lifetime contributions to agriculture that helped alleviate smallholder farmers' lives while improving the food and nutritional security of millions worldwide."
In his keynote address, Ambassador of the Netherlands to India Marten van den Berg said, "The Netherlands aims to be a partner to lift smallholders in India and worldwide out of poverty and contribute to zero hunger (SDG 2). For example, together with the Government of India, the Netherlands supports the training of farmers in Centres of Excellence."
He added, "The three World Food Prize laureates speaking today played a pivotal role in improving smallholders' lives and food security, ranging from high-quality vegetable seeds and training to soil management and crop improvement. I hope we will all take inspiration from them since improving farmers' incomes and sustainable agricultural production are global challenges".
( With inputs from ANI )
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