2. India and Africa: Is the Cooperation Sustainable?

India and Africa share a long history of amicable political relations, which has led a partnership of diversified functionality and economic association between the two regions. The three India-Africa Forum Summits dispersed over the first two decades of the twenty-first century have strengthened India-Africa cooperation significantly. The framework of cooperation adopted at the inaugural India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS-I) as well as the framework of enhanced cooperation adopted at the subsequent forum summit, just three years later, positioned agriculture at the top of the list of India-Africa collaborations. Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme has led bilateral efforts in a variety of fields and provided the framework for India’s foreign policy engagement with the developing countries, including those in Africa. Under ITEC’s sister programme, the Special Commonwealth African Assistance Program (SCAAP), several African countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, Tanzania, etc. are invited to share in Indian developmental experiences and technologies. India and Africa share mutually beneficial opportunities available for Government-to-Government (G2G) and Business-to-Government (B2G) cooperation in the field of sustainable agriculture. Initiatives under the ITEC programme and the IAFS processes aim to harness this complementarity and improve the standards of production, consumption, and input technology, as well as the acquisition and channelling of foreign direct investment (FDI) and technology from private investors into Africa.