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The 9th ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture and Forestry was held on 9 September 2026 in New Delhi, co-chaired by India's Union Agriculture Minister and the Philippines' Secretary of Agriculture.
It was preceded by the 10th ASEAN-India Agriculture Working Group Meeting on 8 September 2026, with 45 delegates from 11 ASEAN Member States.
Ministers welcomed 'ASEAN 2045: Our Shared Future' and the ASEAN Food, Agriculture and Forestry Sectoral Plan 2026-2030, and looked ahead to the ASEAN-India Medium-Term Plan of Action for Cooperation in Agriculture and Forestry 2026-2030.
The 'India-ASEAN Friendship Spike for Agriculture and Forestry' was unveiled as a symbol of the partnership.
The 10th Ministerial Meeting will be convened in 2028.
Regional grouping established on 8 August 1967 through the Bangkok Declaration (ASEAN Declaration) by five founding members - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Brunei joined in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar in 1997, Cambodia in 1999, and Timor-Leste on 26 October 2025, taking membership to eleven - which is why the Working Group drew delegates from 11 Member States.
ASEAN's highest decision-making body on agriculture and forestry, meeting annually with agriculture ministers and senior officials of the member states; a network of working groups and task forces reports to it through the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM-AMAF). The ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting is the dialogue-partner extension of this track.
India's apex agricultural research and education body, set up on 16 July 1929 as a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860; an autonomous organisation under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, whose Secretary is ex-officio ICAR Director General. It led India's side at the Working Group and mounted the technology exhibition.
ICAR institute responsible for collecting, conserving and documenting India's plant genetic resources; its Gene Bank was on the delegation's itinerary.
Climate-resilient agriculture, low-emission rice, water productivity, AI-enabled digital agriculture, soil health, food safety, post-harvest management, circular bioeconomy, agroforestry and resilient value chains - plus transboundary pests and diseases, which is where regional cooperation has the clearest logic.
Cooperation is financed through the ASEAN-India Cooperation Fund (set up in 2009 with USD 50 million), the ASEAN-India Green Fund (announced at the 6th ASEAN-India Summit in Singapore in 2007 with an initial USD 5 million from India) and the ASEAN-India Science and Technology Development Fund (established 2008, raised to USD 5 million in 2015).
India's most visible recent piece of agricultural diplomacy: the UN General Assembly declared 2023 the International Year of Millets on 5 March 2021 on India's proposal, backed by 72 countries; FAO led the observance, closing it at Rome in March 2024. Millets are branded 'Shree Anna' domestically, and pearl millet fields were on the ASEAN delegation's IARI itinerary.
Kisan Sarathi advisory platform, an indigenous African Swine Fever vaccine with disease-forewarning systems, a high-density shrimp farming model, and virus-free potato seed production through aeroponics.
GS Paper 2 > International Relations > Regional Groupings; GS Paper 3 > Agriculture
General Awareness > International Organisations
ASEAN's highest tier of relationship with an external partner; India was granted it in November 2022.
Rice cultivation practices such as alternate wetting and drying that cut methane emissions from flooded paddy fields.
An economy in which agricultural and biological residues are cycled back as inputs - feed, energy or materials - rather than discarded.