- Gurmeet Khudian meets Fares Saeb; Israel shows strong interest in importing food grain seeds from Punjab
- Punjab to adopt advanced agricultural technologies through academic exchanges, says Khudian
Chandigarh, December 22
Punjab is poised to become a global hub for seed production as the state government explores a strategic partnership with Israel to incorporate advanced agricultural technologies. This emerged from a high-level meeting between Punjab’s Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Gurmeet Khudian, and Fares Saeb, Minister and Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Israel, held at Punjab Bhawan on Monday.
Khudian stated that the collaboration would focus on four key areas: exporting food grain seeds to Israel, academic exchanges between Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana and Israeli institutions, sharing citrus planting material, and implementing cutting-edge water management technologies.
The Punjab Agriculture Minister highlighted that a major topic of discussion was the introduction of Israel’s precision ‘N-Drip’ irrigation system, which can save up to 70% of water while significantly lowering energy use. The state will also examine ways to adopt Israel’s expertise in treating and reusing sewage and village pond water for irrigation, following Israel’s approach where 95% of treated wastewater is repurposed for agriculture.
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Khudian remarked, “This partnership represents a forward-thinking advancement for Punjab’s farming community. By combining Israeli innovation with our agricultural strengths, we aim to conserve water resources, increase farmers’ incomes, and establish Punjab as a global leader in seed production and sustainable farming practices.”
Fares Saeb, while inviting a high-level delegation from Punjab to further cooperation in agricultural research and development as well as water reuse, expressed strong interest in importing food grain seeds from Punjab. He also noted improved connectivity, announcing that direct flights from Delhi to Israel—reducing travel time to about six hours—will commence in January 2026.
Present at the meeting were Secretary of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Arshdeep Singh Thind, Managing Director of Punjab Agro Hargunjit Kaur, Special Secretary Agriculture Baldeep Kaur, Director Agriculture Jaswant Singh, and other senior officials.
