By KUNA
New Delhi : Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will receive the “Agricola Medal”, the highest award of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Thursday for his government’s poverty alleviation programmes.
The award will be presented to Singh by FAO Director General Jacques Diouf at the Global Agro-Industries Forum (GAIF) 2008, an official in the Indian Agriculture Ministry told reporters here Wednesday.
Among the poverty alleviation programmes of the Indian government, the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme has been pathbreaking. “It is being implemented in all 604 districts of India under which a person can get 100 days mandatory job every year,” the official said.
The Indian Ministries of Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry and Food Processing Industries are jointly hosting GAIF-2008. FAO, UN Industrial Development Organisation, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development are the co-sponsors.
The US, Britain, China, Germany, France, Italy, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Hungary, Myanmar, South Africa, Brazil, Thailand, Pakistan, and Guyana are among the countries participating in the GAIF meet.
The three-day GAIF meet is starting here today and will continue till April 11.