SRINAGAR: Israel is planning to open two Centres of Excellence (CoE) in Jammu and Kashmir. The centres are likely to be set up with the two agriculture universities operating in Srinagar and Jammu, India Today reported.
Yair Eshel, the Agriculture Attache at the Embassy of Israel in India confirmed this to India Today in Jammu where he had a meeting with top officials including the Director of Agriculture.
Eshel visited the agricultural farms lying near the India-Pakistan border in Jammu on Friday. The visit was aimed at shortlisting the locations for the centre. “Jammu and Kashmir has a lot of potential,” Eshel was quoted saying by India Today, insisting Tel Aviv wants a prosperous Jammu and Kashmir. “We are ready to share our advanced technology with the farmers of Jammu and Kashmir.”
Reports appearing in the media said representatives of the Israel Embassy Monday visited the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K) Shalimar campus to explore the joint collaborations in agriculture technology between the university and Israeli institutions. The delegation comprised Yair Eshel, and Brihama Dev, Project Officer MASHAV had an interaction with Vice Chancellor Prof Nazir Ahmad Ganai. They discussed the modalities and framework for the establishment of the Centre of Excellence for precision agriculture and conducting capacity-building programmes.
“Yair Eshel, during the interaction, said it is a special day for him that after the long process he is able to visit SKUAST-K in Kashmir to understand how to collaborate and make the two-side links benefiting both,” a newspaper report said. “He offered full corporation and said it needs to be built step by step to benefit both of us.”
