Government of India has proposed to organize an Agricultural Festival cum exhibition titled 'Agri-Fest-2009' in the last week of August 2009 in Kochi. This was announced by Prof. K. V. Thomas, Hon'ble MOS ( A,CA,F&PD) during a meeting in this regard was convened in New Delhi today to discuss the modalities for organizing the event. Agri-Fest-2009 will be organized on the eve of ONAM celebrations in Kerala.
The AGRI-FEST-2009 will aim to showcase fruits and vegetable production, processing & marketing technologies. There will be Seminars on the issues concerning Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Husbandry and competitive events like foodfests, vegetables and fruits and competition for school children. The event will hold various cultural programmes by participating artists from various parts of India and Kerala.
Various Government organizations like ICAR, National Horticulture Board, Department of CA, Department of Food & PD, CWC, FCI, Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, National Seeds Corporation, various commodity boards like Spices Board, Coconut Board, Rubber Board and State departments of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry and agencies of Kerala government like Keralafed, Rubbermark, State Horticulture Corporation etc. will participate in the event.
An executive committee has been constituted for proper arrangements for organizing of Agri-Fest-2009 in a befitting manner. The District Collector, Ernakulam, will be the Convenor of the committee and MD, National Horticulture Board will be Chief Coordinator for organizing the event.
In the meeting, it was proposed to request Union Agriculture Minister, Shri Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister of Kerala, Shri V.S. Achutanandan, Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Prof. K. V. Thomas and Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Kerala Shri Mullakkara Retnakaran to be the Chief Patrons of Agri-Fes-2009. The event will be organized in the last week of August 2009 in Kochi.
The Meeting was chaired by Prof. K. V. Thomas, Hon'ble MOS (A,CA,F&PD), Govt. of India and attended by Shri Mullakkara Retnakaran, Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Kerala, Dr. Mangala Rai, DG, ICAR, Smt. Minnie Mathew, Chairman, Coconut Development Board, Shri C. V. Anand Bose, Addl. Secretary (Agriculture), Dr. S. Rajan, ADG (Horticulture), ICAR, Shri Bijay Kumar, MD, NHB, Shri S. K. Pattanaik, JS (National Horticulture Mission), Shri P. K. Mohanty, Principle Secretary (Agriculture), Govt of Kerala, Shri Febi Varghese, MD, Kerafed and other Central government officers.
