Indo-US project to boost agriculture research

UNDER A new Indo-US Agricultural Knowledge Integration Project (AKIP), comprehensive environmental studies would be conducted to create a viable atmosphere for the development of agriculture and other vegetation.

UNDER A new Indo-US Agricultural Knowledge Integration Project (AKIP), comprehensive environmental studies would be conducted to create a viable atmosphere for the development of agriculture and other vegetation.

Talking to newsmen here on Monday, a senior professor and head of the Biological and Environmental Sciences  at the Texas A & M University, Arun Goel said that planning commission member Dr NK Singh, who had been appointed the coordinator of the project here, would also be the coordinator of the program in the United States.

He said that the scientists, under the project, had identified at least thirty six areas of research including Bio-safety, intellectual property, genomes pollution and soil and mineral conservation.

As part of the project, not only would the researches be promoted, but people working in different areas would also be told about the ways to protect their designs, discoveries and innovations, he added.

To a question Goel said that no joint fund would be created and each country would have to use its own resources to carry out the project.

The Indian budget for the project was unlimited, as assured by the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during a meeting of the project, Goel added.

The only advantage of the project, Goel said that  would be that the scientists of both the countries would have free access to each others research work.