An eight member African team visited Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) to explore areas of collaboration on agriculture and research.

At a high profile meeting held in TNAU here delegates from Mali, Seychelles, Uganda, Ethiopia and Botswana explored their areas of interest.

The Ambassador of Mali, Niankoro Yeah Samake, in his opening remarks indicated that irrigation, farm mechanization, quality seeds, market linkage, post harvest, ICT tools and farmers co-operatives are some of the technological areas of collaboration, where in TNAU can be roped in.

The High commissioner of Seychelles expressed interest on sharing TNAU help on food related imports for Seychelles and to make attain self sufficient in food production, a varsity release said.

The delegates expressed interest in sending students from their countries and requested TNAU to open up more admissions on Agricultural education and research.

TNAU Vice-Chancellor Dr. K. Ramasamy said that TNAU has collaborations with more than 150 institutions across the World and it is ready to collaborate with Africa on transfer of technologies.

He emphasized that nutritional security through multi cropping system aided by integrated farming system can help nutritional security in Africa, for which undergraduate Agricultural education is pivotal along with transfer of technologies.

Industrial associations like CII, which arranged the visit, can help agriculture by bridging producers and end users, Ramasamy said.