STATE TIMES NEWS
AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat shared with Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh, some of the Agritech innovations developed by him, when the latter called on him at Raj Bhavan here.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, Acharya Devvrat, besides being Governor of an important State, can also be appropriately described as an Agritech StartUp, who has developed innovative methodologies in natural farming which are quite different from organic farming and at the same time, much more lucrative compared to several other avenues of livelihood.
Devvrat informed Dr Jitendra that only last week, he launched a PhD programme in Natural Agriculture by Gujarat University at the Indian Institute of Sustainability (IIS). He said, it will cover its various aspects like rural management, environment management, innovation, Agri-entrepreneurship, Agribusiness and Value Chain Management.
Acharya Devvrat supported the proposal of Dr Jitendra Singh for an integrated approach to promote Agritech Start-ups to make farming easy and more profitable by pooling the resources and experiences of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), and Department of Science and Technology at the Centre and other similar research bodies at Agricultural colleges and Universities.
Dr Jitendra briefed the Gujarat Governor that a trend of Agri-tech Start-ups has come up in India in the last few years due to active encouragement provided by the Modi government to address the problems of Indian agriculture such as supply chain management, use of outdated equipment, improper infrastructure, and inability of farmers to access a wider range of markets with ease.
Dr Singh said, Agritech Startups are providing innovative ideas and affordable solutions to a number of challenges faced all across the agricultural value chain and it has the potential to change the face of Indian agriculture sector and eventually raise farmers’ incomes.
Dr Jitendra strongly advocated the use of modern and new technology in Agricultural sector and pointed out that countries like Israel, China and the US have transformed several agriculture practices in their country with the use of technology. He said, Startups are now providing solutions such as biogas plants, solar powered cold storage, fencing and water pumping, weather prediction, spraying machines, seed drills and vertical farming, which is bound to increase farmers income.