As many as 1,012 students were conferred with various degrees at the 55th Convocation (2019-20) of University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bengaluru held on Tuesday at the GKVK campus in Bengaluru.
While 659 students received bachelor’s degrees, 279 received master’s degrees and 74 received doctoral degrees. In the doctoral degree programmes, seven boys and five girls were awarded a total of 21 gold medals. Governor and Chancellor of the University Thawar Chand Gehlot distributed the medals.
Trilochana Mohapatra, Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, delivered a virtual address, in which he stressed upon the need to focus on secondary agriculture. Logistics such as storage, transportation and credit market information are crucial for transforming subsistence agriculture into sustainable, profitable agriculture. Indian farmers incur ₹92.651 crore per year in post-harvest losses, the primary causes of which are poor storage and transportation facilities, he said.
Further, he said that the digital revolution has opened new windows for Indian farmers. Technology, such as precision agriculture, e-extension, drone-led agrochemical spraying, smart warehousing and transport optimisation, real-time yield estimation and price information, credit and insurance management and e-marketing have proven their applicability in making agriculture easier, predictable and profitable, he added.
