Through the conference, ICAR hopes to collaborate with organizations from industry, research, and academia that are interested in ICAR's technologies, so that the collaborations can benefit the country, including the agriculture sector, in the long run.
Agriculture Universities, as well as more than 100 institutes affiliated with ICAR, have a variety of agricultural facilities, including well-equipped research/development facilities and laboratories/infrastructure that can be used for mutual benefit.
Addressing the conference, Union Minister Tomar said that if feedback is received on how industries can apply the research done by ICAR, how to take it forward by supplementing each other, what do the industries working at the grassroots level want, then the delivery will improve. The global importance of our agricultural products has grown. It is everyone's duty to make sure that our products are of high quality. The shortcomings or gaps in this sector must be filled, as well as how India can achieve excellence in agriculture while facing current international challenges; everyone from farmers to industry must collaborate in this direction. The relevance of such discussions enhances even more during the Amrit Kaal.
“Our thinking should be geared towards meeting the world's expectations of India. To increase India's importance on the global political stage and to strengthen it further, as well as to achieve the goal of India becoming a developed country by 2047 (Amrit Kaal), it is critical that our discussion be comprehensive and meaningful. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself thinks in this direction, and it is his insistence that others do as well. In the global scenario, opinion about India is rapidly changing, which needs to be changed and established faster; to accomplish this, we must all work together and move at a faster pace,” he added.
Tomar further said, “India has made significant progress in the agriculture sector, but there are numerous challenges that must be identified and addressed in order for agriculture to play a larger role in strengthening the country's economy. More discussion in this direction is needed. There is a need to work strategically, moving beyond traditional agriculture and fully utilising technology from lab to land. Scientists affiliated with ICAR have conducted significant research that is beneficial to the country and the world today. We used to want to learn from the rest of the world, but now the rest of the world wants to learn from India in agriculture sector.”
“There is a need to move more quickly in this direction so that farmers can benefit from good inputs and technology, production quality improves, post-harvest losses are reduced, and private investment in agriculture grows. Although the Government of India is working on all of these at its own level, the results of which are visible to all of us, we all know that if farmers, their produce, research and technology, and industries all work together, the economy will be strong. We must ensure that farmers receive a fair price for their produce, which is why industry's contribution is critical,” he concluded.
Kailash Choudhary, Minister of State for Agriculture; Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Director General, ICAR; Dr. Praveen Malik, CEO, Agrinovate India Ltd, ICAR's commercial arm; and industry representatives Shri Hemendra Mathur and Salil Singhal also addressed on the occasion.
