The two-day national symposium on "Creating Enabling Ecosystems in Agricultural Universities for Agritech Innovations: Challenges and Opportunities" concluded on Friday with a call for changes in agricultural education under the new national education policy.
The closing session featured R.K. Mittal, president of IAUA and Vice-Chancellor of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology (Meerut, UP), R.M. Chauhan, VC of Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University (Gujarat), and V. Praveen Rao, VC of PJTSAU.
They emphasized the importance of changing the way agricultural universities operate so that they can effectively guide farmers in moving the agriculture sector forward in the manner of countries with limited natural resources, such as South Korea and Taiwan.
They want the emphasis to be shifted to sustainable agricultural development in the face of climate change, degraded soil nutrition, and a lack of nutritional food by bringing new and emerging technologies to small and marginal farmers.
Mr. Chauhan stated that the outcomes of the two-day symposium would be submitted to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Union Government in the form of a report.
On the first day, Thursday, Telangana Agriculture Production Commissioner M. Raghunandan Rao stated that agriculture universities in the country will make efforts to make emerging technologies available to small and marginal farmers so that not only the quality of the product but also the quantity and yield are improved.
He described several new Telangana Government agricultural initiatives, including Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima, free uninterrupted power supply to agricultural pump sets, the revival of minor irrigation tanks, completion of irrigation projects, appointing one agriculture extension officer for every 5,000 acres of cultivable land, and the construction of Rythu Vedikas, among others.
S. Siva Kumar, Group Head (Agri & IT Business) of ITC Ltd, suggested that universities improve productivity, production, and quality to ensure fair prices for farmers by making new technologies available. He proposed that production be aligned with consumer demand and food security while keeping in mind shrinking resources and climate change.
