Expert SpeakRaisina Debates
Published on Jul 08, 2026
As global aid declines, India’s SEEDS initiative is charting a shift towards smaller, demand-driven development partnerships anchored in agriculture, local ownership, and South-South cooperation
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India’s approach to development partnerships in the Global South is becoming increasingly inventive. This is evident in its outreach to the Caribbean and Latin America, where India has extended US$1 million grants to nine countries to set up food and agro-processing units that support small and medium enterprises
Two of those facilities were handed over by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in May this year on his tour of the Caribbean: a passion fruit processing and packaging facility in Suriname and a fruit and vegetable processing facility in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). Similar facilities for food processing have also been set up in Saint Vincent & Grenadines, Dominican Republic, Barbados, Honduras, Belize, Saint Kitts & Nevis, and Guyana. They are part of the SEEDS initiative (Supply of Equipment for Efficient Development of SMEs), a development cooperation programme by the Ministry of External Affairs, which provides critical agricultural machinery and equipment from India to support value addition and enhance productivity and income for farmers and agri-SMEs.
Agricultural productivity and value addition are challenges in countries like Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and across the Caribbean and Central American region, which is a net importer of food. A majority of farmers in the region are smallholders, with limited access to infrastructure and processing capacity, directly worldbank.org/en/latinamerica/food-insecurity-caribbean” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>impacting food security and livelihoods. The facilities under the SEEDS initiative are designed to reduce post-harvest losses, enhance value addition, increase farmers’ incomes, strengthen the agri-SME ecosystem, create employment opportunities, and improve export capabilities. They are also adaptable to local production systems and value-chain priorities—the SEEDS initiatives include cocoa processing in the Dominican Republic, coconut processing in Barbados, and juice processing in Honduras.
These challenges are pervasive in the Global South, which, according to estimates, has nearly 500 million smallholder farmers, who produce a third of the world’s food on just 12 percent of agricultural land. Along with the overlapping pressures of climate change, smallholder farmers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America also grapple with challenges related to access to markets, finance, and agricultural re
It is in this context that the SEEDS initiative, if scaled up, has the potential to be far-reaching, especially in African countries. In India and across much of the Global South, significant quantities of harvested produce go to waste because of fragmented supply chains and inadequate post-harvest infrastructure. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of food loss between the stages of harvest and retail in the world at 23 percent, compared to the global average of 13.3 percent—an issue that threatens food security and is a major contributor to climate change.
A New Model for South-South Cooperation
Investments and partnerships in agro-processing can help address this gap and deepen agricultural cooperation between countries. The facilities in Suriname, T&T and the other countries were implemented with technical support from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Consultancy Services (NABCONS), a subsidiary of NABARD, which provides technical assistance and services in agriculture and rural development. NABCONS conducted a feasibility study after each country submitted proposals based on local needs and oversaw procurement and installation of the machinery. Though relatively modest in scale compared to big-ticket infrastructure projects which form the crux of international economic diplomacy, the SEEDS programme showcases India’s technical expertise, manufacturing capabilities, development experience, and creates opportunities for the private sector while strengthening its economic diplomacy.
SEEDS programme showcases India’s technical expertise, manufacturing capabilities, development experience, and creates opportunities for the private sector while strengthening its economic diplomacy
India’s South-South cooperation model is driven by mutual growth and demand-driven partnerships. It has steadily expanded its footprint as a development partner: between 2000 and 2023, it extended over US$14.7 billion in grants and US$32 billion in concessional Lines of Credit, supporting more than 600 development projects across 68 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific. India’s grant assistance programme supports projects in agriculture, technology, infrastructure, community development, energy, and defence.
Given the critical role of agriculture — almost half the world’s population lives in households linked to agrifood systems, the vast majority in Asia, Africa, and Latin America — identifying scalable, context-specific solutions in the sector is a key priority of India’s development partnerships. Under its agriculture cooperation programme, India’s partnerships have spanned financing of productive infrastructure, capacity-building, and technical cooperation under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC), alongside agricultural research and training.
Drawing on its domestic experience, India is increasingly integrating agro-processing and agricultural value chain development into its development cooperation with Global South partners
An underlying principle of India’s South-South cooperation model is to leverage indigenous development innovations and adapt them to partner-country needs. In recent years, India’s domestic agricultural policy has focused on strengthening post-harvest infrastructure, agro-processing, and smallholder value chains to enhance value addition, reduce agricultural waste, and drive exports. Drawing on its domestic experience, India is increasingly integrating agro-processing and agricultural value chain development into its development cooperation with Global South partners.
Prioritising African Partnerships
Africa is of particular relevance, as agriculture is a strategic sector for India-Africa cooperation. Both India and Africa have similar demographic trends, growing youth populations, and confront challenges related to food security, nutrition, and agricultural transformation. Agriculture and food systems are central to African economies, providing livelihoods for 70 percent of the population and contributing nearly 30 percent of the continent’s GDP. At the same time, African nations are increasingly critical to global food value chains, as exporters of key agricultural products. In India, where agriculture continues to support the livelihoods of nearly half of the population, there has been a greater emphasis on increasing farmers’ income through investments in agricultural infrastructure, mechanisation, and digital technology. With a renewed focus on India-Africa cooperation and the India-Africa Forum Summit expected to be convened later this year, there is fresh momentum to convert shared agricultural priorities into more structured partnerships.
For India, initiatives like SEEDS — where the Caribbean and Latin American experience has provided proof of concept — are an opportunity to diversify from large, capital-intensive projects towards smaller, more adaptable interventions that promote inclusive, locally-owned outcomes and that can be matched to rising demand in partner countries
With ever-increasing gaps in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) financing and a decline in international aid — 2025 saw the largest recorded annual drop in the history of official development assistance — demand-driven, asset-based models of South-South cooperation are increasingly relevant. For India, initiatives like SEEDS — where the Caribbean and Latin American experience has provided proof of concept — are an opportunity to diversify from large, capital-intensive projects towards smaller, more adaptable interventions that promote inclusive, locally-owned outcomes and that can be matched to rising demand in partner countries. The future resilience of agriculture and food systems will be determined in the Global South, and so will the shape of partnerships that support them.
Sunaina Kumar is Director and Senior Fellow, Centre for New Economic Diplomacy, Observer Research Foundation
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Sunaina Kumar
Sunaina Kumar is Director – CNED and Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. She previously served as Executive Director at Think20 India Secretariat under
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Small Grants, Big Stakes: India’s Evolving Approach to Development Partnerships
Developing and Emerging Economies
Jul 08, 2026
