Mr. J A Chowdary, Co-chairman of FICCI AP State council, welcomed the gathering and stressed on the importance of reviving the Agri sector and encouraging entrepreneurship in Agri & food processing sector. Encouraging private sector partnership, infrastructure development with the state and central governments can only help the farmers’ development – so as economic development of the country.
Dr Marco Ferroni, Executive Director, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) delivered keynote address and also unveiled his publication on “TRANSFORMING INDIAN AGRICULTURE—INDIA 2040” at the Workshop.
The book envisaged that to achieve dynamic economic growth of India, it needs vibrant agriculture growth, for three reasons:
The rising demand for food, feed and fiber for a steadily increasing population must be met even as the arable land area goes on shrinking and water supplies sinking
The relatively high level of self-sufficiency in staples demanded for the food security of large countries such as India must be maintained
Inclusion must be achieved through remunerative employment in primary production, inputs and their distribution, post-harvest handling, processing, and retailing
The Author lauded that - Indian agriculture has vast untapped production potential. This could be realized in environmentally sustainable ways – with the right technologies and adequate incentives and support for farmers.
“India 2040” clearly indicated that enhanced agricultural growth requires massive productivity (and hence, efficiency) improvements in all aspects of agriculture and related to all factors of production, including (but not limited to) water. To achieve these, the country needs the right incentives and supporting frameworks – in other words, markets and institutions.
The author is also touched upon the importance of corporate sector, farmers and civil society’s involvement and their proactive approach to the change; they respond to the opportunities arising from economic growth, urbanization and modernization. Some of the changes encountered are
- Agriculture is changing, becoming more market-oriented, information-driven, shifting to higher-value products (which are more perishable, requiring new types of infrastructure and logistics); agriculture is trying to adapt to climate change and problems such as soil degradation, water challenges and growing labor scarcity.
- But the changes – and their benefits for people and the environment – are often held back by missing or inadequate government support. This is visible in areas including
o Prices, trade and subsidies | Delivery of services to farmers
o Effectiveness of agricultural research and extension
o Regulation affecting (1) seeds and other inputs and (2) farm-to-fork value chains
o Incentives favoring the wasteful use of water
Dr Marco Ferroni also interacted with Mr. S Sivakumar, Group Head, ITC-Agribusiness,; Dr W R Reddy, IAS, Secretary & Director, Sagar Group of Institutions and Dr. M S Rao, Director, ICRISAT. The panelists expressed their views on India Agriculture and road map for 2040. The Agri & Food sector has become more dynamic in nature and how the Industry-Institution- can create farmer-friendly, consumer-responsive, with the tool of Good Governance, stable government and its policies were the some of the issues discussed by the panelists.
