HYDERABAD, MARCH 3 On his quick-fire, four-hour day out in hi-tech Hyderabad, US President George Bush muddied his hands like a farmer, clowned around with a mega melon, shook hands with members of rural women’s self-help groups and then, at a gathering of young businessmen, assured that outsourcing from the US was here to stay.

‘‘I have taken a position, the US will reject protectionism. We won’t fear competition. We welcome competition,’’ Bush told young entrepreneurs at the Indian School of Business at his second engagement in Hyderabad.

Globalisation is bound to cause job losses and governments must equip people to cope with the globalised world, Bush said.

‘‘Let us make sure that pro-growth economic policies are in place. Low taxes, less regulations, fewer lawsuits and wise energy policies are the way forward,’’ the US President said.

Earlier, with his first engagement in Hyderabad, a visit to the A N G Ranga Agricultural University, the US President shored up Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Rajashekhar Reddy’s credentials as a rural-looking, farmer-friendly chief minister.

In stark contrast to the Bill Clinton visit as president in 2000, during the tenure of Chandrababu Naidu, the Rajashekhar Reddy government chose to showcase agricultural practices and development in Andhra for George Bush, instead of the urban IT and BPO sector.

The US president, who spent nearly 90 minutes at a special agriculture show organised at the National Seed Project premises in the university campus, obtained first-hand knowledge on the lives of Indian farmers, cultivation methods, pesticide usage and played around with some hybrid varieties of vegetables and fruits produced in Andhra.

‘‘Fortunately, even he knows about farming. He was telling us of what is done in Texas. All said and done, it was a good interaction. He was clearly excited about how farmers and women’s self-help groups are coming forward,’’ Rajashekhar Reddy, who guided Bush around the National Seed Project campus, later said.

With the nuclear deal sealed on Thursday, the US president was a relaxed man at the university outing—trying his hand at spraying pesticides, shaking hands frequently with women workers while walking around the open farm plots.

‘‘We have focussed the US president’s attention on agriculture which is important to the majority of people in the state. In the coming days there will be many announcements of Indo-US agricultural tie-ups,’’ Reddy later said.

The Andhra chief minister did not participate in the US president’s second engagement for the day at the International School of Business, located at Hyderabad’s hi-tech district Cyberabad, affiliated to the Wharton School and Kellog School of Management.

While Bush was busy with agriculture and business, his wife Laura spent time at the Home Science department at the university and also interacted with students from the NSS on HIV/AIDS issues.