NEW DELHI, SEPT 6
With the objective to reimagine Indian Agriculture and reminding all the stakeholders to battle with the menace of Technology fatigue in the farming sector, the birthday of late Sharad Joshi was celebrated as the National Farmer’s Technology Day.
On this occasion, All India-Kisan Coordination Committee & Shetkari Sangathna, organised a virtual Zoom meeting to discuss the importance of technology in agriculture and how it will benefit the farmers with high yield. They resolved to do a nationwide campaign if regulatory changes are not brought in favor of the farming community. At this moment spurious and counterfeit pesticides and other agro-input is a major cause of worry which is a source of anti-development and terror funding. Trade in counterfeit pesticides undermines the legitimate competitive advantage of rights holders, hampers innovation, farmer’s economy, and long-term economic growth. Illicit trade may also ultimately undermine the rule of law and citizens’ trust in government.
Addressing the session was Chief Guest RG Agarwal, Group Chairman Dhanuka Agritech Limited, who said, “Farmer Technology Day 2020 aims to explore the responsible application and adoption of existing technologies, design and scale new services, tools and approaches to empower our Farmers.”
He further added, “India’s hectare yield is 2 tons while the rest of the world is 3 tons and our PM while speaking at a programme at IARI asked all Scientists to bring the yield at world average level of 3 tons. The biggest drawback of the agriculture sector is the non-availability of new technology to our farmers in spite of good work done by some scientists in various research institutions and we could not take up that research from the lab to land”.
Agarwal went on to add “We can double Indian Farmers income by bringing new innovative technologies for sustainable agriculture production for the food, health, wealth, nutrition and economic security of our country. By integrated approach of all innovative technologies, we can increase productivity to feed the growing population of our Nation”.
Also speaking at the session was Bhupinder Singh Mann, Ex-Member of Parliament, and National President – Bharatiya Kisan Union, and Chairman All India Kisan Coordination Committee. “We believe that agriculture is one of the world’s oldest sectors, and the economies of many countries still rest squarely on the shoulders of the agricultural sector. We live in a world where technology is at the heart of our everyday lives. Similar to the transforming in other sectors, technology is sure to shape farming practices and can transform Indian agriculture by addressing challenges related to quality, quantity, distribution, and storage,” he said.
