The Conference on Statistics and Informatics for Futuristic Humanosphere Especially in Agriculture (COSIFHA) began at the Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University’s (ANGRAU) Sri Venkateswara Agricultural College here on Tuesday, in conjunction with the 21st annual meeting of the Society for Statistics, Computer and Applications (SSCA).
Scientists from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the National Bank for Rural Development (NABARD) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) are attending the event.
National Statistical Commission’s (Mumbai) former Chairman R.B. Barman said the Indian Statistical System should take into account requirements of stakeholders, such as informing a farmer about the best possible yield per acre, a manufacturer on the best combination of inputs and outputs, a financier on the risk of lending and risk-pricing and an entrepreneur on market behaviour.
Combined effort
“We need to build a bridge between statisticians, and government and private labs for solutions that could lead the country to a higher trajectory of growth,” he said.
In his keynote address, K. Srinivasa Rao, a professor of statistics at the Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, explained the non-linear models, with normal errors and their applications.
“There is a need to develop new software for dealing with problems of mesokurtic, leptokurtic, platykurtic and non-normal distributions,” he said, stressing precautions needed to be taken to get accurate estimations in normal distribution.
Futuristic research
Emphasising the role of statistics in agricultural research, Dean of Agriculture J. Krishna Prasad requested the SSCA to conduct futuristic research to deal with problems faced by agricultural scientists.
D.C. Nath, a professor at the Assam University, spoke on myths in statistics and the role of computers in better prediction. M.R. Srinivasan from the University of Madras delivered the ‘M.N. Das memorial lecture’.
SSCA president V.K. Gupta, conference chairman P. Ramesh Babu and organising secretary G. Mohan Naidu took part. Convener V. Srinivasa Rao proposed a vote of thanks.
