With agriculture becoming unviable and youth shying away from the sector, Vice-Chancellors of various agriculture universities in the country have called for heavy deployment of investments, information technology and gadgets in order to make agriculture attractive for the youth.

The VCs, who met here for two days here, discussed on a variety issues that dogged agriculture in the country and came out with a set of recommendations on Thursday.

Modern farming techiques

They felt that young farmers must be given training in modern farming techniques and help agriculture graduates set up start-ups.

“In order to make young entrepreneurs successful in their agriculture ventures, we must equip the university teachers with entrepreneurship and IT skills. We must invest heavily on gadgets and on developing sensor-based technical solutions. This will go a long way in promoting smart agriculture,” they said.

“While encouraging private investments in public sector agricultural research, there is a need to introduce e-courses in graduation programmes,” a spokesperson from Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) said.

The VCs felt that it was time to make effective use of expertise in remote sensing, GIS (spatial information system), drones, mobile technologies, Internet and bio-informatics to improve prospects in the primary sector.

“We must introduce topics on agriculture and allied sectors in the text books of primary school. This will make them appreciate the importance of the primary sector,” they felt.

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