East-West Seed India and FICCI organized a webinar on “Role of Agritech in vegetable farming.” Prof (Dr) C.D.Mayee, President, South Asia Biotechnology Centre, was the Chairman of the session and also moderated the discussion.
Experts such as Dr.Conrado Balatero, Group Breeding Manager, East-West Seed, Global, Dr.Sangita Ladha, VP-Marketing, and Business Development, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd.New Delhi, Dr. B. S. Tomar, Head, Division of Vegetable Science
Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and Deepak Pareek, CEO & Founder,
DigiAgri participated as speakers in the session. Nearly 400 participants across India participated actively in the Webinar.
Said Dilip Rajan, Managing Director, East-West Seed India in his opening remarks, “East-West Seed India together with FICCI have curated a series of six webinars to focus on the benefits of vegetable farming for smallholder farmers in India.
Experts reiterated in today’s webinar that technology will disrupt Agri value chains, drive higher productivity, and create new channels to market, and there will be a greater willingness to engage digital Technology.
The pandemic has shown the immense value of digital tools and agriculture. Systematic application of digital tools will support sustainable production & timely supply, especially when food production and supply involves millions of smallholder farmers.
Vegetable farming offers better economic returns for smallholder farmers, enhances the health and nutrition of consumers while reviving our stalled economy. Estimates indicate that India would require around a 35% increase in the production of vegetables over the next five years.
This shortfall can be addressed by productivity augmentation driven by higher adoption of hybrid seeds in the cultivation of vegetable crops, innovation, and technology-based approaches.”
V Ram Kaundinya, Director General of FSII and Head, Agriculture Committee FICCI said, “Agritech, combined with geographical location devices and remote sensing advancements, promises to change the way vegetable crops will be managed.
There is already significant work happening on the use of satellites in capturing images and crop information across farmlands, feeding it back for analysis, and providing actionable intelligence to the farmers.”
