HYDERABAD: Asserting that “digital agriculture” was the future of the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday urged talented youth to contribute to the field.
“India’s efforts are increasing relentlessly to empower farmers through digital technology,” he said after inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. Modi listed areas like crop assessment, digitisation of land records, spraying insecticides and nutrients by drones where technology and artificial intelligence play a major role.
He also inaugurated ICRISAT’s Climate Change Research Facility on Plant Protection and ICRISAT’s Rapid Generation Advancement Facility. These two facilities are dedicated to smallholder farmers of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. He unveiled a specially designed logo of ICRISAT and launched a commemorative stamp issued on the occasion.
Addressing a gathering, the PM stressed the need to set new goals in agriculture and achieve them over the next 25 years. India, he said, was working on a dual strategy. A large part of cultivated land was being brought under irrigation through water conservation and linking of rivers. Water-use efficiency through micro-irrigation is being encouraged in areas with limited irrigation, on the other hand.
He lauded ICRISAT’s efforts in integrating farmers with their markets and promoting pulses and chickpea production in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. “Your research and technology have helped making agriculture easy and sustainable,” Modi told scientists.
Controversy marked Modi’s arrival as Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao did not go to the airport to receive the PM because of illness. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Union minister of tourism G Kishan Reddy and Telangana minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav were among the VIPs who received Modi. The absence of the CM irked the saffron party.