Annual Report 2009-2010 - Department of Agriculture & Co-operation

18.4 Office of the Minister (Agriculture),
Embassy of India, Rome: The Government of
India, for the purpose of maintaining liaison and
coordination with the FAO has nominated its
Ambassador in Rome as the permanent
representative of India to the FAO. Keeping in
view the specialised nature and increasing
volume of interaction with the FAO and its various
bodies, an agricultural wing, headed by an officer
with the rank of Joint Secretary to the
Government of India with the designation of
Minister (Agriculture), has been established at
the Indian Embassy, Rome. The Minister
(Agriculture) has been designated as India's
Alternate Permanent Representative (APR) to the
FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP). The
Minister represents Indian interests at meetings
of the FAO/WFP and other agencies having their
headquarters in Rome, e.g., the International
Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
18.5 World Food Programme (WFP): The World
Food Programme (WFP) was set up in 1963 jointly
by the United Nations (UN) and the FAO, and India
is a member since its inception. It seeks to provide
emergency food supplies in places facing acute
food insecurity due to natural calamities and manmade
causes. The Government of India
contributes US$ 1.92 million every biennium
towards the WFP, which it uses for support of its
India Country Programme. Since its inception India
has contributed US$ 33.58 million to the WFP up
to the financial year 2009-2010.
18.6 Currently, the India Country Programme
2008-12 is under operation, focusing on reducing
hunger and malnutrition amongst women and
children in vulnerable areas, development of
appropriate products to deal with malnutrition
for young children, and livelihood opportunities
for the poor. The WFP has also made notable
contributions through product innovations such
as Indiamix and mapping of hunger in India
through food atlases, etc.
18.7 The India Country Programme 2008-2012
has three components, namely, i) Capacity
Development for Food Security, covering a whole
range of programmes in which the WFP will
provide technical assistance in support of supply
chain management of Government food-based
programmes, fortification of mid-day meals,
nutrition education, village grain banks,
integration of nutrition in HIV/AIDS packages, etc.
These programmes will be taken up on the
request of state governments; ii) Support to ICDS
(Integrated Child Development Schemes), and
iii) Support to Livelihood Activities, a joint
programme with the IFAD. The WFP has
committed to providing 1,84,104 MT of food
grains, at a total cost of US$ 24 million (which
also includes distribution/superintendence cost),
to be procured within the country. In addition,
the WFP will raise US$ 5.4 million locally from
foundations and the private sector to meet costs
towards components. The country programme
will cover an estimated two million beneficiaries
in the five states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh,
Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, apart
from the states which request for assistance
under this component. The governments of
states where WFP will support the ICDS
programme will also provide contributions worth
US$ 23.4 million in terms of 2,59,000 MT of food
grains.
18.8 World Bank: Presently, there are four
agriculture sector projects being executed with
World Bank assistance. These projects mainly
relate to watershed development, soil and water
conservation measures, as well as overall
agricultural development related issues. These
projects, taken together, involve a total IDA credit
of XDR 321.11 million.
18.9 Agreements/MoUs/Work Plans: There
are more than 40 countries with which India has
signed MoUs/agreements/work plans for
International Cooperation
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