Shri Salman Khurshid Delivered Valedictory Address at WCA 2014

13th February, 2014, New Delhi

Shri Salman Khurshid, Minister of External Affairs, Government of India delivered Valedictory Address on the concluding day of World Congress on Agroforestry here today. While appreciating efforts of World Agroforestry Centre and Indian Council of Agricultural Research for organizing this event of global importance, he urged to domesticate fruit and medicinal plants in the homestead for nutritional security. He said that this is the topical event with reference to Indian context as today we are looking beyond success of green revolution to sustain the food production. In the era of climate change, trees can do a lot of rescue work for us due to their innate ability to sequester carbon from atmosphere.

Highlighting the importance of forests in our life, he said that forest make beautiful landscapes which, in turn, makes beautiful minds. This is what we need today. We need to provide new land for forests, that is where Agroforestry comes in with tremendous potential, he added. Be an agroforester yourself, build an agroforestry system around yourself and may we all plant a million trees to get prosperity for us and the generation to come, they will remember our noble actions, Shri Khurshid said.

Earlier, Dr. S. Ayyappan, Secretary, DARE and DG, ICAR welcomed Shri Khurshid and outlined the outcome of major deliberations during the WCA that was inaugurated on 10th February, 2014 by the Hon’ble President of India. He also spoke on objectives of the Congress and elaborated its importance in the Indian context.

Dr. Anthony J. Simons, Director General, World Agro-forestry Centre and Dr. Alok Kumar Sikka, Deputy Director General (NRM), ICAR were also present on the Dias.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi; World Agro-forestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya; and Indian Society of Agro-forestry (ISAF), Jhansi have jointly organized WCA-2014 at New Delhi. The theme of the Congress is ‘Trees for Life: Accelerating the Impacts of Agroforestry’. This is the third in the series, after the first two congresses were held in Orlando (USA, 2004) and Nairobi (Kenya, 2009).

Around 1200 participants, about 500 foreign participants from more than 80 countries, including researchers, policymakers, and major businesses with concerns for sustainable development, NGOs, farmers and youth groups from around the world have participated in the Congress.

Dr. Ravi Prabhu, Deputy Director General (Research), World Agroforestry Centre proposed the vote of thanks.
(Source: NAIP Mass Media Project, DKMA)