New Delhi: In an effort to boost the country's food production through adopting "environment friendly" technologies, India today (Jun 29, 2004) inked a letter of intent (LoI) on Agricultural Bio-technology Research and Development with the United States.

"The agreement, which aims at providing easy solutions to problems faced by the farmers, heralds a new era of food development in the country. It would provide technologies to the farmers which are effective and at the same time do not come at a high price," Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal told reporters.

The programme, besides encouraging the creation of partnership to bring together Indian and US' institutions to pursue agricultural biotechnology research projects of mutual interest, would also address the problems faced by the farmers in a large area, he said.

On the agreement, signed by Sibal and US Ambassador David Mulford, the Minister said, "A mix of traditional plant breeding and modern techniques would be used to achieve two fold increase in food production by 2025. Food requirement by 2025 is expected to go up by two folds and three folds by 2050."

Speaking on the occasion, Mulford said, "We are happy to extend the strategic relation with India in the field of agriculture and biotechnology which would also solve our interests of future markets."

For the smooth sailing of the agreement, the two sides would not take any matter, which involve IPR issues, Mulford said.

"Our focus is to help the farmer increase the food production by providing then better production techniques and not to make wealth," he said.

The country needs yet another green revolution keeping in view that one-fifth of its population suffer from nutrient deficiencies, Sibal said adding that the Department of Science and Technology would be the nodal agency from the Indian side while USAIDS would be the agency from their side.

"Under the agreement scientists from the two countries would work towards enhancing the nutritional values of the food products through breeding techniques keeping in view that a large population in the country is deficient in Vitamins, Zinc and Iron," he said. In the initial phase, the experts would focus on increasing the productivity of rice and wheat while potato, tomato, groundnut and sunflower would be taken up later, he said.

The partnership assumes significance considering the fact that most of the land in Punjab has gone saline over the years, which might affect its production capacity, Sibal added.