India’s agriculture research agenda needs to be re-oriented to prioritise breeding stress-tolerant crop varieties and climate-smart practices, said Ajay Kumar Sood, Deputy Managing Director, NABARD.

Addressing the valedictory of the businessline Agri and Commodity Summit, 2024 in New Delhi on Friday, Sood said the country’s agrarian sector is facing second-generation issues like degradation of natural resources such as soil, water and air and is vulnerable to climate change. It is important to invest in productivity-enhancing agriculture practices that use fertiliser, high-yielding seeds and irrigation but have minimum impact on the natural resources to sustain long-term food security, he said.

In the face of stagnating agricultural production, fragmented land holding and increasing population pressure, high-tech agricultural practices like soilless agriculture, protected cultivation under greenhouse and poly house, hydroponics, aeroponics, vertical farming etc are necessitated to increase agriculture productivity, he said. 

Tapping into tech

As the agriculture system is evolving rapidly, adopting the spirit of innovation is the need of the hour, Sood said. “It is only appropriate that we embrace technology and think out of the box in order to take advantage of these changing dynamics. There is also a need to change the way in which we channel our technology from lab to land, so that we may respond faster to the societal demands. It is here that agri start-ups are expected to play a crucial role in future,” Sood added.

The start-up ecosystem has been bringing to the ready access of farming community several innovative products including online marketing of farmers produce, precision agriculture solutions for crop and animal husbandry, traceability solutions, storage solutions, online financing, innovative field level cold storages, irrigation control, customised mechanisation solutions on rent, rapid quality assessment and grading, third party logistics solutions.

“Better post harvest loss management and a revamp of co-operative movement through formation of FPOs can arrest the volatility in food prices and farmers income and help harness the true potential of Indian agriculture,” Sood said.

“Incentivising private players as well as public-private partnerships to build an agricultural supply chain, similar to the Amul model for dairy products, can eliminate post harvest wastage as well as facilitate the balance between domestic production and demand,” he added.

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