In news– Recently, the Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare of India chaired the 11th Meeting of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Agriculture Ministers.
Theme of the meeting
The Ministers of Agriculture of BRICS countries deliberated virtually on the theme “BRICS Partnership for Strengthening Agro Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Security”
Joint declaration
After the meeting a Joint declaration of the eleventh meeting of BRICS Agriculture Ministers covering a wide range of focus areas for future cooperation amongst BRICS countries and the Action Plan for 2021-24 for agricultural cooperation of BRICS countries and BRICS Agriculture Research Platform were adopted.
The Action Plan 2021-2024
It provides for enhanced cooperation in the field of agriculture amongst BRICS nations and focuses on the themes of food security, welfare of farmers, conservation of agrobiodiversity, resilience of food and agricultural production systems, promotion of digital agricultural solutions etc. which are integral to the sustainable development of agriculture.
It has been proposed to include “Conservation and promotion of agrobiodiversity for nutrition and sustainability” as a focus area for collaboration in the Action Plan 2021-2024 for Agricultural Cooperation of BRICS Countries.
BRICS Agricultural Research Platform
- The minister said that the platform has been created to promote cooperation in agricultural research and innovations and its implementation has been started recently.
- The Ministers expressed their intention to make the BRICS Agriculture Research Platform developed by India functional and encourage research cooperation to improve the use and application of agricultural technologies for meeting the needs of producers and processors.
- The platform will promote cooperation in the areas of agricultural research, extension, technology transfer, training and capacity building.
About BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)
- The leaders of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries met for the first time in St. Petersburg, Russia, on the margins of G8 Outreach Summit in July 2006.
- Shortly afterwards, in September 2006, the group was formalised as BRIC during the 1st BRIC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, which met on the sidelines of the General Debate of the UN Assembly in New York City.
- After a series of high level meetings, the 1st BRIC summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia on 16 June 2009.
- BRIC group was renamed as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) after South Africa was accepted as a full member at the BRIC Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New York in September 2010. Accordingly, South Africa attended the 3rd BRICS Summit in Sanya, China on 14 April 2011.
- BRICS is an important grouping bringing together the major emerging economies from the world, comprising 41% of the world population, having 24% of the world GDP* and over 16% share in world trade.
