India is predominantly an agrarian country. More than half of its population is still dependent on agriculture, which has immense potential to create employment opportunities. Therefore, innovation in agriculture is of paramount importance today not only to provide jobs but also food in times of crises such as pandemic and climate change.

There is a great need for technical research to make agriculture profitable and increase its productivity. This was the takeaway from the ‘Outlook Agritech Summit and Swaraj Awards 2022’ that took place on September 14 in New Delhi. This was, incidentally, the 4th edition of the successful summit and Swaraj award ceremony.

Distinguished speakers at the summit, including policy makers, agricultural and technology experts and officials of farm implements companies, laid emphasis on the need for introducing new policies and bringing about fresh innovations and investments in technology to expand the agricultural sector.

Unprecedented changes in agriculture sector

Chief guest at the event, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar expressed happiness over Outlook’s participation in the summit and also encouraged and awarded all the winners on the occasion.

Addressing the farmers, citizens and enlightened people associated with the agriculture sector, the Union minister said that India was in the top two places in the global scenario in the field of agricultural products.

To maintain its position in the top league, he said, the Centre has to protect farmers from the damage caused by natural calamity by using private investment and technology. In order to support the farmers, the government of India’s budget for the agricultural sector has jumped from Rs 22,000 to Rs 1,32,000 crore over the past eight years.

The Union Agriculture Minister further said that the government had decided to set up 10,000 FPOs by allocating a budget of? Rs.6800 crore. Besides, it has launched ‘Oil Palm Mission’ for smooth supply of edible oil. Under this mission, steps are being taken to promote oilseed cultivation in six lakh hectares of land by earmarking Rs 11,000 crore.

Tomar also stressed the need for simplifying the process of credit to support the farmers. At present, under the Digital Agriculture Mission, the Government of India is working on a plan to connect the farmers of the country with banks and provide them easy loans.

The Union Minister urged all the agricultural education institutions, scientists and Kisan Vikas Kendras to make a united effort to reduce the losses in the agriculture sector and increase the productivity of the farm sector.

Concern over growing population and climate change

Earlier, during a panel discussion in the first session of the summit, policy-makers, experts from the technological and agriculture sectors and officials of farm implements manufacturing companies deliberated at length on ‘Increasing population, climate change and building food system through innovations and technology in India’.

Rajiv Rellan, head of sales and marketing of Swaraj Division, said that about 40 per cent of India’s population depends on agriculture and they still wait for the monsoon to do farming. This affects the agriculture sector adversely. Rellan said that efforts are being made by the Swaraj group towards technological development to deal with the situation.

Former president of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Padma Bhushan awardee R.D. Singh said, “Food prices have increased substantially today. According to UN estimates, India will become number one in the world in terms of population next year. “By 2030, its population will rise to 250 crore. In such a situation, many challenges will come to the fore, so more emphasis will have to be laid on its solution through technology and research,” he said.

Shri Ram Kaundinya, Managing Director, Advanta India Limited also discussed the growing population and the impacts of climate change on agriculture. Talking about the challenges ahead, he said, “Climate change is not something that will happen in the future. It is already here. In the next 50 years, we are going to eat twice the amount of food we have eaten in the last 10 thousand years. In such a situation, the question arises as to where will the food come from?”

He suggested that changes in agriculture in conformity with climate change, could check the problems related to agriculture and food supply.

Sundeep Kumar Nayak, Director General, National Productivity Council of India, said that if the impact of climate change in the agriculture sector is to be mitigated, then we have to work through our two pillars i. e. youth and women. He said that about 94 per cent of the farmers in the country are members of some cooperative organisation. In such a situation, taking steps through cooperatives would be effective.

Employment generation through technological development

In the second panel at the Outlook Agritech Summit and Swaraj Awards, the discussion revolved around employment generation through innovation and technology, as also to make agriculture essential again for income growth.

Dr. Ashok Dalwai, agriculture expert and CEO of National Rainfed Area Authority, said that in order to give a fillip to the agriculture sector in India, it is necessary that alongside agriculture, animal husbandry, dairy, floriculture, bee keeping, fisheries, etc should be kept in sharp focus. Also, there is a need to add new dimensions in the marketing and processing sectors through technological development in the agriculture sector.

Agriculture scientist Dr Suresh Paul said that agriculture is being re-established as a priority in the country. “It will benefit everyone, from farmers to consumers. At a time when the country’s growth rate has decreased, the agricultural growth rate is increasing continuously,” he said. “It will help the poor and homeless people of the country get food security and alleviate poverty alleviation. He said that by connecting agriculture with modernity, steps are being done to curb the expenditure involved in it. Drone technology and artificial intelligence is also being used now.”

Another agricultural scientist Dr. Satendra Kumar Singh said that the nature of agriculture is like beekeeping. If the environment is not good, the agriculture sector will not progress and the farmer will be forced to migrate. “Therefore, we have to ensure that the farmer should have all the things he needs like fertilizers, seeds etc. in proper quality, at the right time and at the right price. Only then will the next generation of farmers do farming,” he added.

Dr. D N Thakur, National President of Sahakar Bharati and an expert on agriculture, said that there is a need to change the system for developing the agriculture sector. “We have to have discussions, so that the social system can easily assimilate the changes,” he said.
“If we want to improve the condition of the farmer, we have to provide all the necessary facilities to them by setting up Kisan Vikas Kendras in the rural areas. Only then the agriculture sector will prosper.”.

Spirit of cooperation among countries must for growth in the agriculture sector.

On this occasion, Michiel van Erkel, Agriculture Counsellor from the Netherlands Embassy said that he never went to the fields, nor did he know much about agriculture, until there was a need for a job.

But when he looked at the things related to agriculture, he found that this is a sector which is full of possibilities. Giving the example of a Dutch company, he said that today efforts are being made to upgrade agriculture with the help of technology. Michiel, speaking about agriculture and agricultural products, said that the Netherlands is the largest exporter of agricultural products after the US.

“Now the time has come to find solutions to the problems of farmers with smart technology. Farmers from almost everywhere in the world are struggling with the problem of water, and climate change. Currently, the Netherlands Embassy and the Government of India are working together on greenhouse technology for the progress of agriculture,” he said, adding that India was a powerhouse of knowledge and the Dutch government was investing heavily for the sake of farmers’ benefit.

Chhattisgarh - a model of agricultural development

The Chhattisgarh State Government has played a key role in organising the ‘Outlook Agritech Summit and Swaraj Awards 2022’. Giving his best wishes for the successful organisation of Outlook Agriculture Summit and Swaraj awards through a video recorded message, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Shri Bhupesh Baghel said that Outlook deserves congratulations for organising such an event.

“Today, providing food grains to the growing population is the biggest challenge of the agriculture sector. Besides, increasing cost in the agriculture sector and uncontrolled use of chemical fertilizers is a matter of great concern. There is a dire need to deal with them, otherwise slowly the farmer will go on to migrate from farming to something else.”

Chief Minister Baghel said that the Chhattisgarh government was working towards fisheries sustainable agricultural development. Support price of crops like paddy, maize, millets is being raised while 65 types of small agricultural produce are being procured by the government. “Due to such policies, reverse migration is taking place in Chhattisgarh. This is a pleasant initiative,” he said.

Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh governments were the state partners of the event.

Technological development and research possible with private sector investment

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar was accompanied by Indranil Roy, CEO of Outlook Group of Publications, Giridhar Jha, Editor, Outlook Hindi and other associates at the event. Distinguished members of the sponsors of the event such as Swaraj Tractor & Corteva Agrisciences also attended the felicitation ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion, Anuja Kadian, Government and Industry Affairs Leader, APAC Corteva Agrisciences, our associate partner for this event, said that the farmer faces the first impact of climate change. To deal with this, private investment in agriculture is necessary. Only then can technological development and research be possible. Also, along with technological development, we have to ensure that the youth take to farming, he said.

Agriculture has been affected worldwide due to weather imbalance. Taking up farming, protecting land and water resources and providing food products to citizens at reasonable prices have emerged as a major challenge. today All these challenges can be solved only through ideological discussion and technological development.

Corteva has planned an unprecedented transformation in the field of agriculture by the year 2025. Its effort is to strengthen the agriculture sector with technological development keeping in mind the climate change. Events have been organised by Corteva on climate change in which representatives of 12 countries participated.

The objective of such programmes organised by Corteva is to ensure sustainable development in agriculture through exchange of knowledge, information and research.

Harish Chavan, CEO of Swaraj Division (Mahindra & Mahindra) also presented his views at ‘Outlook AgritechSummit and Swaraj Awards 2022’. He said such events play an important role for development in the agriculture sector.

It is through them that dialogue is established between the government, farmers, and agricultural experts. Besides, it is quite an occasion to honour the farmers and experts and scientists working tirelessly in the field of agriculture. It is also important to see that the agricultural growth rate has been leading even in the times of Covid.

The farmers have been successful in meeting the food needs of the citizens even in the adverse conditions of Covid pandemic. Swaraj’s effort is to provide better facilities to the farmers through technological development. Swaraj is also working to promote horticulture crops.

Small, lightweight and state-of-the-art machine tools are also being made. He said that Swaraj was trying to provide a modern vision to the farmers to deal with the problems related to agriculture through the Internet and Artificial Intelligence.

At the ‘Outlook Agriculture Summit and Swaraj Awards 2022’, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar felicitated Kisan Vikas Kendras, agricultural scientists, farmers’ organisations and agricultural educational institutions for their outstanding contributions in the field of agriculture in seven categories. Dr. Bikash Roy from Cooch Behar, West Bengal was awarded in the Excellent Farmer Development Centre category, Dr. Khanindra Dev Goswami from Shri Krishna in the Product Oriented Farmers Committee was awarded in the Excellent FPO category. Dr. Pralay Kumar Bhowmik from Delhi won the award in the Outstanding Agricultural Scientist category, while Dr. B. Dayakar Rao from Millets Research Hyderabad got the Indian Institute of Excellence in the Educational Institution category. Mr. Ram Singh Rathwa from Rangpur Group Milk Producers Co-operative Society got the award in the excellent farmer cooperative category while. Renu Sharma from Mizoram won it in the excellent NE state category.

The jury of the award ceremony included agriculture expert Dr. Ashok Dalwai, former President of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Padma Bhushan Professor Ram Badan Singh, Director, South Asia International Food Policy Research Institute, Delhi, Pramod Kumar Joshi, Director General, National Productivity Council India, Sundeep Kumar. Nayak, and National President of Sahakar Bharati Dr. Dinanath Thakur.