Need for farmers to make use of tech

Hyderabad: A two-day ‘Agrivision 2019’ conference on ‘Envisioning Agro solutions for Smart and Sustainable Agriculture’ concluded here on Friday at ITC Kohenur, Hi-Tec City.The two-day conference was jointly organised by Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Cornell University, USA.

 At the conference there were eight different sessions and 44 speakers from various public and private institutions, industries took part. Experts from the USA and several farmers also participated in the deliberations on various topics.

On the first day, sessions were held on ‘Combating Climate Change: Advances in crop breeding and Natural Resource Management (NRM).’ They discussed advancements in the area of crop breeding and the technologies and developing new varieties in adapting and their ability in withstanding the climate change. Further, the sessions also discussed Natural Resources Management, Internet of Things (IoT) & AI based Agriculture: The evolving landscape of digital Revolution.

 Speakers stressed on digital interventions for smart agriculture such as drones, remote sensing, sensor-based drip irrigation, big data analysis, IoT, Artificial intelligence in enabling and empowering agriculture. In other sessions, speakers made deliberations on economics behind enhancing farmers income, financing agriculture and role of private and public sectors.

On the second day, the Director General of Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), Dr Trilochan Mohapatra, chaired the session on post harvest management and value addition of foods. He spoke of dire need to reduce post harvest losses especially in perishable foods and grains. He also spoke about how important it was to make agriculture profitable and sustainable and encourage in terms of ensuing consumers benefits and benefits to producers.

Dr Mohapatra emphasised on addressing the gap between production and consumption, which in turn would lead to post harvest wastage and help increase farmers’ income and ensure better returns to the producers. He also explained how the Centre was supporting food processing with various policies and support systems by promoting value addition to food products, whereby additional income and employment would be created. 

The second day saw a panel discussion on ‘Technology in Agri Entrepreneurship: Success stories and Experiences’ from the progressive farmers. It was chaired by the Dr V Praveen Rao, the Vice-Chancellor of PJTSAU. 

The main focus of this session was use of technology by the farmers and how it could help them in improving crop yields. Progressive farmers shared their success stories and experiences. Several eminent speakers from India and USA shared their experiences in agricultural sector.