Cornell will host an Indian delegation of senior government officials and private sector representatives May 16-18 as part of an exchange of agricultural information and technology.

"Progress in biotechnology here in the United States has been very rapid, and there has been a lot of commercial development in that regard. India would like to take part in that," says K.V. Raman, Cornell professor of plant breeding and director of the Cornell-Eastern Europe- Mexico program for research into the virulent potato fungus called late blight. "This visit by Indian officials is intended to improve collaboration between Cornell and India and to facilitate the introduction, field testing and commercialization of genetically engineered crops."

The delegation will meet with Daryl B. Lund, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; James Hunter, director of the Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y.; W. Ronnie Coffman, director of the Agricultural Experiment Station in Ithaca; several faculty members in the agriculture college; and scientists from the Boyce Thompson Institute of Plant Research Inc., which is located on Cornell's campus.

Cornell's agriculture college is working with the India Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, in developing a plan that would result in the exchange of scientists, scientific information, equipment, plant germplasm and breeding material both to and from India.

The delegation includes representatives from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research; Ministry of Science and Technology; Jawaharlal Nehru University; Health Services of India; Ministry of Environment and Forests; Bhaba Atomic Research Center; Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds; Monsanto (India); and The Hindu newspaper.

Ithaca will be the first stop on the delegation's United States tour, which also includes visits to U.S. government agencies in Washington, D.C., and to corporate facilities in St.Louis and Davis, Calif.