At the invitation of ministry of agriculture of India, a 7-member delegation headed by Du Qinglin, Chinese minister of agriculture paid a visit to India during 27-30 of March. On 28 March, Mr Du Qinglin and Indian Union Minister of Agriculture Shri Sharad Pawar had talks and signed the MOU for cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors.

The MOU identifies many areas for cooperation including exchange of information and experience of best practices in respect of crop productions, horticulture, fisheries and animal husbandry; exchange of information and expertise of dry land farming technique as well as techniques and experience of irrigation, field and commercial application of biotechnology to crop production, livestock and fisheries under specifically approved collaborative projects, cooperation in the field of agro-information technology and agricultural processing sector, cooperation for strengthening of animal quarantine and health certification systems, exchange of experience in respect of mechanization with particular reference to machines for small-sized farm-holdings, convening of joint seminars alternately in the two countries. The two parties shall establish a Sino-India Committee of Agricultural Cooperation to ensure the implementation of this MOU. A meeting at executive/vice ministerial level shall be held alternately every two years to review the implementation of the MOU and provide new guidance in this regard. The two parties shall assign departments and officials to set up a joint working group responsibly for formulation and implementation of projects, and routine duties of cooperation. It was also agreed that the Joint Committee should be held in Beijing to discuss the project, key fields and working plan of cooperation in next two years.

The Delegation level discussions between the two countries covered a wide range of issues and reached following consensus:

1, to strengthen cooperation in exchanging resources of agricultural breeds, mutually supplying well-bred seeds and improving agriculture development in both countries through introducing, modeling, advocating of breeds and commercial production.

2, to strengthen cooperation in improving, selecting and breeding hybridized rice, cotton and quality corn.

3, to strengthen cooperation in controlling animal epidemics such as bird flu, notifying quarantine situation, sharing relevant information and improving warning mechanism, the ability of protection and control and pharmaceutical research.

4, to strengthen cooperation in agricultural trade and to promote export and import of complementary agricultural products.   

 During their stay in India, the delegation visited the Agricultural Product Marketing Committee in Samalkha, Haryana and studied the rural development of the state of Haryana.