Iowa leaders to continue building trade relationships with India

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds traveled to India on a trade mission along with Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, Iowa Economic Development Authority and Iowa Finance Authority Director Debi Durham and agricultural and business leaders from Iowa. (Photo courtesy of Iowa Governor’s Office)

Gov. Kim Reynolds said Wednesday that India, with its growing middle class, agricultural needs and innovative business sector, is “an ideal partner for generations to come.” 

“It’s hard to really overstate the potential long-term impact of the Indian market on our farm families in our state,” Reynolds said during a news conference at the Capitol.

Reynolds returned last week from a 10-day trade mission to India alongside Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, Iowa Economic Development Authority and Iowa Finance Authority Director Debi Durham and agricultural and business leaders from the state. 

The purpose of the trade mission was to meet with Indian delegates and business leaders to discuss how Iowa could benefit India through biofuel, commodity crops and agricultural technology trade, and to pitch Iowa as a place for Indian businesses to expand. 

Just days after the trip, Peter Tokar, the Quad-Cities Chamber president and CEO, said he has hosted an Indian business that is interested in an investment in the Quad-Cities region.

While on the trip, Reynolds said the group signed three memorandums of understanding around continued partnership and Iowa-based company PowerPollen signed a letter of intent with an India-based seed company. 

Kavi Chawla, PowerPollen senior advisor, said the trip was a “catalyst” for the business venture and for promising future partnerships with companies in India. 

Agricultural relationship

Reynolds said the partnership between Iowa and India dates back to the early 1960s when Iowa native, Norman Borlaug, who is often credited with spurring the green revolution, introduced his genetically disease-resistant wheat. 

Now, as India faces continued population growth, Reynolds and those present on the trade mission said they are hopeful the country will once again adopt Iowa agriculture innovation in biofuels, genetically modified crops and ag technology. 

“To meet the food security challenges of the present, its ag sector will need to make a technological leap, not unlike what it made during the Green Revolution,” Reynolds said. “But the nation’s transition to high productive agriculture is going to take some time.” 

Part of the holdup is that India banned most GMO seeds and GMO-derived products. 

Reynolds said she thinks a pilot project with GMO soybeans or corn for livestock feed or for ethanol production could be a good way to start the transition she said will be necessary to meet India’s energy independence goals and growing population.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said India also has a history of letting things like livestock feed into the country when they needed it, which he said shows a willingness to open that door, and support Iowa commodity groups. 

Naig said India has a large productivity gap that Iowa, as a leader in manufacturing equipment, livestock, crop genetics and precision ag tools, can help to fill.

“There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity,” Naig said.

Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig speaks about a recent trade mission to India. Also present was Gov. Kim Reynolds (left) and Sid Juwarker of the Greater Des Moines Partnership (right), along with agriculture and business leaders who were also on the trip. (Photo by Cami Koons / Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Naig said the country also has increasing needs for food, livestock feed, pork, beef and clean fuel sources like ethanol and sustainable aviation fuel. 

“This all aligns really well, in fact, seamlessly with what the Iowa farmer can supply,” Naig said. 

Sid Juwarker, vice president of economic development for the Greater Des Moines Partnership, said the trip was transformative for him as someone who spent his childhood in India. 

“I remember moving to Iowa and experiencing Iowa as an Indian, falling in love with it, deciding to stay here, and then 30 years later, I got to experience India as an Iowan,” Juwarker said. 

He said trips like this are very important, because culturally, India likes to have personal connections with the people it does business with.

Reynolds said she invited Indian delegates to visit Iowa and she plans to return next year and subsequent years to further cultivate the relationship between Iowa and India. 

“It can’t be a one and done,” Reynolds said. “This is something that we believe is the right thing to do for our state and for our farmers and manufacturers and biotechnology.”