A five-day meeting of the BRICS grouping commenced in Indore on Tuesday to discuss food security, smart farming, global agricultural trade and farmer welfare, according to Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The discussions under India's presidency will include a three-day agriculture working group meeting from June 9 and a two-day BRICS ministerial meeting from June 12. BRICS is an intergovernmental organisation comprising eleven major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia.
Highlighting the significance of the meeting, Chouhan emphasized that Brics represents a very strong voice of the developing countries in the world. He noted that around half of the world's population dwells in Brics countries, which has 42 per cent of the global agricultural land and accounts for more than 42 per cent of the produce. Of the 58 crore farmers across the world, 70 per cent small cultivators live in Brics nations, as reported by Rediff Money.
The five-day gathering will deliberate on food security, farmer welfare, nutrition, climate-resilient smart agriculture, facilitation of international agricultural trade, supply chains, digital agriculture, research, knowledge exchange, artificial intelligence, and robotics, according to Chouhan. A joint declaration will be issued after consensus among the BRICS agriculture ministers. As per The Times of India, officials from BRICS countries participated in the opening round of discussions, with Joint Secretary Ajit Kumar Sahu from the Department of Agriculture emphasizing that the meeting is discussing common issues in the agricultural sector of BRICS countries to enhance cooperation and jointly address the problems faced by farmers. Key topics include the impact of climate change on agriculture and financing for the agricultural sector.
Last month, Chouhan had told reporters in Indore that the BRICS meeting, to be held under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, would prove to be a historic opportunity for the global agriculture sector. He stated it would provide a new direction to the world. Coincidentally, the meeting is being held in Madhya Pradesh's financial capital at a time when the state government has declared 2026 as the Agriculture Welfare Year, underscoring a regional commitment to agricultural development and reform.
