BENGALURU: Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy said his vision for India is to increase the contribution of the agricultural sector to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “Currently agriculture in India contributes to only 20 per cent of the GDP and provides employment to 40 per cent of people, either directly or indirectly.
There is a need to increase the per capita income of every individual to ensure all farmers and farm workers have equal access to education, healthcare and shelter,” he said at the ‘Agriculture Day’ programme organised by Deshpande Foundation to highlight the importance of technology and its value to the agricultural sector.
He called for adoption of technology for farmers and farm workers so that they can better utilise resources as well as cut down on their dependency on resources like water and fertiliser so as to improve agricultural economy. Dr Gururaj Deshpande, cofounder, Deshpande Foundation, pointed out that the biggest problem is the disconnect in the whole social sector.
This is felt as those creating solutions for farmers are not exactly aware of the lives of farmers or difficulties they face at the ground level, he said. Professionals from the agritech field said people in India are currently not willing to invest crores of rupees in the sector and called upon farmers themselves to be entrepreneurs.