Experts: Technology must to boost agriculture sector

New Delhi, May 12

Agriculture experts have expressed apprehension about growth in the agriculture sector if science and technology are not put to use.

They said this at a conference titled “Futuristic New Technologies in Agriculture: A Game Changer for Indian Economy,” held in New Delhi.

Addressing the conference, Former Vice-Chancellor of South Campus Delhi University, Deepak Pental, who has credit of developing India’s first GM mustard hybrid crop DMH 11, said that farmers wanted higher agriculture output with low input cost. “The majority of farmers have small holdings, and they obviously want to reduce the monetary costs of fertilisers, irrigation and seeds. Therefore, technology is badly required to increase yield.”

Ram Gopal Agarwal, founder of Dhanuka Agritech Ltd, said many challenges were coming in the way of agricultural development — small land holdings, decreasing cultivable land, lack of awareness among farmers, availability of quality agricultural inputs and plant diseases. “New technologies — such as precise agriculture Information Technology, drones — as well as quality agro-inputs are not available to farmers. This has led to a significant reduction in agricultural productivity,” said Agarwal.