India offers $100 million for institution building in rural Africa

India has earmarked about $100 million for helping institution building in member countries of the Afro-Asian Rural Development Organisation (AARDO), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said while addressing the Golden Jubilee function of the organization in New Delhi today.

He said the fund will be used for establishing various institutions, including the India-Africa Institute of Agriculture and Rural Development, soil water and tissue testing laboratories, farm science centres, agricultural seeds production-cum-demonstration centres and rural technology parks in different parts of Africa.

Institution building is an important facet of our cooperation, he said.

He said India would provide more than 500 new scholarships over the next few years, particularly in agricultural sciences.

''We have earmarked 700 science fellowships named after the celebrated Indian Nobel Laureate C V Raman for Africa and 150 African students have already been awarded this prestigious fellowship. We are also conducting short-term training courses in areas such as water conservation, livestock and fisheries production, farm mechanisation and post-harvest processing and value addition.

India, he said, has agreed to pool intellectual resources in the area of development planning for joint studies on cotton production in Africa and on integrated water resource development and management of five different river basins in Africa.