A passage to India

This week, Western Producer Mary MacArthur starts a four-week agricultural tour of India. She arrived today — although as I write this, it is already tomorrow in India — and has posted a blog almost immediately upon arrival.
As prairie farmers know, India is an important agricultural trading partner. It is a major buyer of Canadian pulses crops, canola and other commodities. It is on pace to expand its imports and last week Canada and India announced plans to negotiate a free trade agreement.

We think it is important for our readers to learn more about this country, one that may become increasingly prominent as a destination for Western Canadian agricultural products.
Hardly a week goes by without some mention of India in agricultural news, whether its import plans, export plans, purchases, embargoes or this massive country’s effect on markets.
MacArthur, an experienced and award-winning journalist, will approach the trip with a Canadian agricultural perspective. As you can see by the accompanying map, she’s going to cover a lot of country in coming weeks. Readers can expect to see more blogs, stories and photographs of India on our website and in the weekly newspaper.

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She isn’t doing it all on her own. MacArthur is part of an agricultural tour organized by Alberta agrologist Pramod Kumar, who is familiar with the country and able to interpret several of its dialects. Agriculture is the entire focus of the tour, so we are confident MacArthur will find news and photos of interest to our readers.
This is the first time in my 17-year tenure with the Producer that we’ve sent a reporter to India, although the paper has a history of sending reporters on international assignment in order to provide the best agricultural information for readers. Our folks have been to Switzerland, Ukraine, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Qatar, Ethiopia, South Africa, England, Ireland, Denmark and quite a few other countries, not to mention frequent sojourns into the United States.
We know our readers are well worth the effort required to send Canadian journalists to explore agricultural issues that affect them.