India builds agricultural research centre for Myanmar

India has started building an advanced center for agricultural research and education in Nay Pyi Taw to train Myanmar agriculturists, official media reported Thursday. The stake was driven at the University of Agriculture in Yezin in the capital to start building the center on Wednesday, said the New Light of Myanmar. India would provide technical assistance including laboratory equipment and Indian experts would train post-graduate students of Myanmar along with the establishment. At present, nearly 200 post-graduate students are studying at the Yezin University of Agriculture. To help promote the development of agriculture, India has extended an aid of 10 million U.S. dollars' farming equipment to Myanmar. The agricultural equipment, presented in March 2012 by Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathaito, included 300 tractors of 40 horse power, 150 threshers of 110 hp, 228 cultivators of 13.5 hp and 431 ploughs. Meanwhile, India's contracted investment in Myanmar amounted to 273.5 million U.S. dollars as of July 2012 since the previous military government opened to foreign investment in late 1988, ranking the 13th in Myanmar's foreign investors line-up. Myanmar and India share a border of over 1,600 kilometers.