Remarks by George Deikun, USAID India Mission
Director at the Mango Festival, Pune
May 03, 2006
Good evening. Honorable Minister Patil, Dr.
Kharche, distinguished guests and friends, I thank
you for inviting me tonight for this event here in
Pune. I hear that Pune is fondly referred to as the
Oxford of the East, the cultural capital of
Maharashtra and the heart land of Alphonso mango
growing area. I am pleased to be here with you all
this evening and am genuinely looking forward to the
opportunity to taste this year’s HAAPUS or
“Alphonso” mango.
The mango – or India’s “king of fruits” – is a
good way for us to further build the relationship
between the United States and India. As President
Bush said in his recent visit to India, “the United
States is looking forward to eating Indian mangos.”
The relationship between our two countries has never
been better. It is built on shared democratic
values. Those values and our common interests are
building stronger partnerships between our countries
on many fronts, including agriculture. The
Agricultural Knowledge Initiative -- a joint
endeavor announced by President Bush and Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh -- is important for both of
our countries. We hope that it will reinvigorate
agricultural research through a number of joint
projects.
The United States Agency for International
Development in India has an association with India’s
farmers going back to cooperation in research and
the development of universities. Some of these
efforts led to the Green Revolution and to
self-sufficiency in food production. One of the nine
state agriculture universities USAID helped to build
in India in those days is Maharasthra’s Mahatma
Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth at Rahuri.
In recent decades India has progressed in
agriculture production and international trade. The
agricultural diversity of the country and its large
labor force are key ingredients that position India
to become a major player in international agricultural
trade.
But why is Agriculture so critical to India’s
economic success? Agriculture provides livelihoods
to almost three fourths of the Indian population.
Making it thrive is necessary to sustain India’s
high level of economic growth and to reduce the
number of people who live in poverty.
Eighteen months ago, USAID initiated the
Partnership for Food Industries Development program.
As a part of this activity Michigan State University
works with local mango farmers in India to increase
their incomes by improving mango marketing. We
launched this effort because we believed that there
were opportunities in Maharasthra to link farmer
groups directly with processors, retailers and
exporters. By improving everyone’s knowledge about
changing market preferences and product requirements
and by building marketing chains this program aims
to benefit both producers and consumers alike.
We were fortunate to have a strong local partner
in Pune for this effort -- the Maharashtra State
Agricultural Marketing Board (MSAMB). I understand
that MSAMB has done pioneering work in the field of
agricultural marketing and achieved notable success
with the grape and wine industries in India. Through
this activity we hope to add “mango marketing” to
that list of successes.
Our work here has started with improving markets
for fresh mangos. USAID is also looking for ways to
help MSAMB and mango farmers access more profitable
markets through processed products and to help
improve efficiency on the farm.
We hope that the success achieved here and the
linkages and partnerships that have developed will
be duplicated in other important mango-producing
states such as Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West
Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The vision is
for an integrated national market and a major export
push that puts India on the mango trade’s world map.
We believe that public private partnerships such as
this one here in Maharashtra will quicken the pace
of progress in India and serve the interests of
small farmers who are the backbone of this country.
Thank you.
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