India: ‘Leveraging new tech will boost agri sector’

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) organised an Agri-Digital Connect Workshop with the theme of ‘Empowering Agriculture with Digital Technologies’ at the university campus at Rajendranagar here on Tuesday.

In his key-note address, Dr V Praveen Rao, the Vice-Chancellor of PJTSAU, urged the students to adapt to new changes and leverage IT technological disruptions that are revolutionising the agriculture. He also gave some examples of latest technologies such as mini robotics clearing the clogged pipes, weather radars providing the information of weather changes.

Earlier in his welcome address, Sanjay Singh, the Chairman of CII-Telangana and Divisional Chief Executive of ITC Ltd.-PSPD, said that improving the productivity using the technology is the key to sustainable agriculture and improving famers’ income.

He also gave an example of the use of technology in improving the productivity of trees for wood used in production of paper at ITC in Bhadrachalam.

Anil Kumar V Epur, the former Chairman of CII Southern Region, said the current and upcoming technologies like IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Drones and Blockchain hold the potential of catalysing innovations in organisation that leads to improvement of agricultural models.

G V Subba Reddy, the Convener of CII-Telangana and Senior Vice-President of Coromandel International Ltd, said that technology can be put to use for faster, cheaper, better products and services in agriculture also. CVD Ramprasad, Director of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), said that there are a lot of opportunities with digital revolution and the same can be used for the betterment of agriculture and allied industries.

Some of the gaps present in the agriculture ecosystems can be bridged by IT technologies, he added.

Raghu H, the Consulting Partner (Life Sciences Advisory Services) of Tata Consultancy Services, delivered the closing remarks and said that in the coming few years, there would be 75 million agriculture devices connected with one other and would communicate with one other with very less human interference.

The workshop was well attended by over 300 students of the university as well as universities across south India.