Stressing upon the need to develop an inter-disciplinary approach towards agriculture education, N.S. Rathore, Deputy Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), said innovations in the fields of Robotics, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things should be used to enhance agricultural productivity.
He was addressing a conference of post-graduates and research scholars in agricultural sciences at University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, (UAHS), Shivamogga, on Monday.
Mr. Rathore said that the production of foodgrains in India at present was at 285 million tonnes per annum. By 2022, the demand for foodgrains in India would reach 310 million tonnes per annum. Owing to the increase in the population at a rapid pace, there is a need to enhance the production of foodgrains, horticultural crops and milk to meet future requirements, he said.
Regarding the foray of private players into agriculture education, he said that, at present, 75 universities and 392 colleges in the government sector are offering agriculture education in India, while there are 75 universities and 600 colleges doing so in the private sector. The government agriculture universities and colleges should upgrade the quality of their research to meet challenges posed by privatisation of the education. Appealing to government agriculture universities to develop entrepreneurial skills among the students, he said that agriculture graduates should not remain job seekers but emerge as job providers.
Addressing the gathering, C.L.L. Gowda, former Deputy Director of International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Hyderabad, stressed upon the need to promote research to make Indian agriculture resilient to climate change.
M.K. Naik, Vice-Chancellor, UAHS, Shivamogga; M. Manjunath, its Director of Research, and T.S. Vageesh, Dean of Post-Graduate Studies were present.
