Windhoek (Namibia): India today said it will explore the possibility of undertaking contract farming of pulses in Namibia to meet its growing domestic demand.

"We will explore how we could try to do contract farming in Namibia. Namibian farmers would grow pulses on Namibian land, which could then be exported to India," Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said during his meeting with Namibian Minister of Works, Transport and Communication Joel Kaapanda.

Ramesh, on a week-long tour to African countries of Namibia and Angola, visited Ministers of Trade, Mining and Foreign Affairs and other senior government officials.

India is the world's largest importer of pulses and the demand would increase in future, given the population growth. The country, where pulses form a staple diet of a majority of the population, would be importing 2-3 million tons of pulses for the next 25-30 years.

"We need to see what we can buy from Namibia. This would also help Namibia in reducing its trade deficit with India and in turn we will have assured supply of pulses. There would be a buy back guarantee of the pulses by the Indian government," Ramesh said.

India also offered to help Namibia develop and upgrade its rail infrastructure. The African country would be upgrading nearly half of its 2,628-km railway network.

"India is also examining how it can participate in the upgradation and modernisation of the 300-km rail link between the Namibian capital of Windhoek and Walvis Bay," Ramesh said.

He said that India will share its expertise to upgrade the institutional capacity of the Trans-Namibia Railway and would also depute a technical adviser to train, skill development and supervise the project.

Source : PTI