Leading experts emphasize encouraging policies, upgradation of educational courses and increasing awareness among farmers for better adoption of latest technologies
India’s journey towards smart farming is well underway, but accelerating its progress requires a robust ecosystem that combines policy support, technological advancements, and farmer empowerment. By harnessing the power of digitalization, precision agriculture, and cutting-edge crop protection techniques, India can ensure a resilient and sustainable agricultural future.
In this context, the experts spoke on the topic, ‘Digitalization, Precision Agriculture and Cutting Edge Technologies for Crop Protection’ at the third session of the second edition of AgroChem Summit 2024 organized by the Indian Chemical News in New Delhi on December 13, 2024.
The session was moderated by Dr Kalyan Goswami, Director General, Agro Chem Federation of India who outlined the need for leveraging the latest digital technologies and precision agriculture to create the next revolution. “At the time of independence, India had a huge challenge of feeding its 43 crore population. To address the situation, under the leadership of Dr MS Swaminathan, the pilot project was undertaken in the state of Punjab. Dr Norman Borlaug played a critical role in it and the result was a green revolution. There was a time when we used to import agricultural commodities including wheat paddy and other food items but now we have surpassed record production. From being a food deficient country to becoming a food sufficient country in 1997, we have come a long way.”
“Currently, the challenge is that more than 80% farmers are marginal ones who still use the conventional ways to do the farming. Farmers in Punjab, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh are capable of using the new technologies as compared to the farmers at other places. The rise in population and urbanization has led to decrease in land holding. Agriculture is no longer profitable for the farmers as they have a lot of issues. Therefore, to make farming cost effective is a big issue,” added Dr Goswami.
K. S. Thyagarajan, Head - Corporate Affairs, Sustainability, Business Strategy, PI Industries said, “We are at the 39th number out of 144 countries in terms of Global Innovation index; 42nd number on patent index. I have seen at a prominent institute in Chennai how engineering students are working on agriculture-related engineering and robotics but they are unaware about patent laws. Data protection and privacy for innovation is a must as a lot of effort goes into it. The encouraging policies around agriculture technologies are lacking.
“The syllabus in the agriculture universities is not connected with the ground scenario, lab to land has disappeared. Scientists have been told to publish more research papers instead of creating the field related technologies.
“India has 1,27,000 startups out of which there are 2,800 agri startups as per the commerce ministry. Yet there are no unicorns in the agri-startup space. The existing ones are struggling with revenue generation. There is a lot of support required for these startups.
“The education level among farmers is bad and there is a trust deficit about adopting new technologies. About 3 crore farmers are expected to leave the farming in coming times due to lack of profits. It requires favourable policies to change that.”
“It is being predicted that if the adoption of the cutting edge technologies continues up to 2030 then about US$ 95000 will be added to the Indian economy. In terms of biologicals, the seaweed is being used to make the super-food. Though GMOs have not been approved here, these are addressing many issues all over the globe.
“Robotic science is being used in the laboratory and educational purposes. Artificial intelligence under precision agriculture has brought the real aspects of the market to the real life classroom. There is a lot of work going on in the post harvest management with Rs 2 lakh crore worth perishable materials getting destroyed each year.
“The extracts from the crab shells are being used for the post harvest disease management. Nuclear technology is being used in soil health management,” added Thyagarajan.
Durgesh Chandra, Secretary General, CropLife India said, “A technology can never be considered successful until it reaches the farmers. In our case when we talk about cutting edge technologies, precision agriculture and drones, unless these are not adopted, these will not be considered successful. This is where the extension system plays a great role but unfortunately it has collapsed.
“Wherever the drone was launched in other countries, it was used for spraying in agriculture but in India it was not allowed for agriculture. The perception of the regulators as well as a few members of the industry created a roadblock. For other new technologies too, this is a big issue as unless and until the other members of the industry don’t agree, the government also can’t formulate policies.”
“We recently brought in foreign experts to discuss the advancing technologies and better regulatory policies. We do a lot of stewardship activities and have engaged the stakeholders including farmers to build awareness.
“A few times Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 crore are spent just to develop the molecule and that too in 12 years. If a molecule is developed, it can have better efficacy and low toxicity. If all the members agree, it becomes easy for the government to take the decision.
“From using 10 kg of active ingredients per hectare in 1960, we are using just 10 to 50 grams. In the last 40 years, the amount of toxicity has also reduced. Now we have the low toxicity molecules due to research over the period of the last 40 years.
“The adoption of digital and cutting edge technologies has helped as well. Mobile apps for diagnostic applications, and drones are being adopted. We have actively pursued the formation of guidelines for use of drones. I believe no technology can be labeled as successful or unsuccessful unless it is adopted by the farmers,” added Chandra.
Shashank Chaturvedi, Director-Marketing, HIL Limited said, “HIL was founded in 1954 with the objective of producing DDT to eradicate malaria from the country. The company later diversified into agrochemicals and started producing technical. As of today we have 6 technical plants with us, mainly located in Rasayani in Maharashtra. There are three units, one in Kochi, second is formulations plant in Bhatinda and third in Rasayani.
“In 2022, we proposed the restructuring of the company and the government has accepted it. We have shut down our two units and shifted the material to Rasayani. After agrochemicals, we have tied up with Unido to develop the alternative to DDT. The project was started in 2010 and we developed three products. First is LLNI, second is VCRC Bti bio-larvicide technology which targets larvae of the mosquito and third is a neem based product.
“We have already commercialized LLIN which is an insecticidal net. While the concept was to dip the net into pesticide and use it for 6 months. Later the technology came where pesticide was impregnated in the thread itself. We took this technology from CPET and made the master batches. The downstream vendors are making threads and we are making the mosquito nets.
“With a life cycle of three year, these nets kill the mosquitoes just by touch. We have partnered on a FARM project of the United Nations where we are developing the bio products such as Leucoderma and Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki (Btk) based biopesticide technology."
AgroChem Summit 2024 themed ‘Capturing Value Through Collaboration, Innovation & Disruption’ was supported by the industry associations including ACFI, BASAI, Croplife India, CCFI and PMFAI. The Gold Partners of the event were Corteva Agriscience and Godrej Agrovet. The Associate Partner was Bayer Limited.
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