The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoAFW), Government of India hosted a dinner in honour of Mr. Shyam Khadka, FAO Representative in India, on the successful completion of his tenure (2015-2019) as FAOR.

The dinner was attended by Shri S.K. Pattanayak, Secretary to Government of India, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers' Welfare, Shri, Ashok Dalwai, Secretary for Government of India and other esteemed Joint Secretaries and senior officials from the Ministry.  IFAD Country Programme Manager, Ms Rasha Omar and WFP Country Director, Dr. Hameed Nuru attended the dinner too, along with few FAO staff.

Mr. Pattanayak congratulated Mr. Khadka on the successful completion of his tenure and lauded his efforts in steering FAO India's strategic priorities in consonance with Govt of India's development agenda. In return, Mr. Khadka expressed his gratitude and appreciation to MoAFW for offering support to FAO, and trusting in FAO as an important knowledge partner.

He specially thanked the Ministry for lending support for the new GEF assisted Green-Agriculture project. He stressed the importance of this project, which will improve the agro-ecological practices in the five target states.