Telangana Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy has said that there is an urgent need to attract more youth into the primary sector to drive the future growth. “If we are successful in attracting them, we can replicate the success that the IT sector has achieved,” he said.

Addressing the inaugural function of the AgriTech South being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Hyderabad on Wednesday, he said that the agricultural sector faced the challenge of increased input costs. “There is a need to increase the productivity in the sector to make farming profitable for farmers,” he said.

Record production

He said that the State had achieved record production of three crore tonnes in the kharif and rabi seasons. “Agriculture contributes about 21 per cent to the Gross State Domestic Product,” he said.

Praveen Rao, Vice-Chancellor of Prof. Jayashankar Telangana Agricultural University (PJTSAU), said that the agricultural canvas was evolving rapidly in the country. “Technology revolution is playing a major role in this positive change. This will ensure food security. Data-driven agriculture and crop diversification are going to play a major role in the next few years,” he said.

Anil Kumar V Epur, Chairman of CII-South Region(Agriculture, Food Processing and Animal Husbandry Subcommittee), said the need for good agriculture practices is well-recognised and accepted. “Efforts are on several fronts towards digitising the existing value chain. The government and private players are working to improve the efficiency and productivity of Indian agriculture and exploring how Farming-as-a-Service (FaaS) solutions can play a role,” he said.

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