A CONFERENCE on Making Indian Agriculture Sustainable was held as part of CII Agro Tech 2016 in Chandigarh on Monday. Three major elements - natural resource management, climate smart agriculture and renewable energy - were discussed at separate sessions. “A holistic view needs to be taken of the issue based on our agriculture system, where animals are also important. I have been driving my own car with biogas at IIT-Delhi for five years now. An experiment is on for use in two-wheelers as well. We are working towards a day when tractors will run on biogas,” said professor VK Vijay, CRDT, IIT Delhi. Watch what else is making news: Climate-smart agriculture involves giving minute attention to operational details. “Climate sensitive machinery and products are a great business opportunity and as a company, we are ready to tap the opportunity in the way we are strategising,” said Ramesh Ramachandran, Sr V-P, strategy and precision farming FES, Mahindra and Mahindra. Another idea that emerged was global insurance as natural disasters could strike anywhere any time. “We need a comprehensive set of policy actions and technology solutions to mitigate climate-related risks in agriculture to ensure true sustainability,” said Vivek Bharati, lead, CII Core Group, on Ease of Doing Business. Experts also made presentations on how renewable energy sources, such as use of tunnel drier by coconut, chilly and turmeric farmers, had made a difference. CS Aulakh, senior agronomist, PAU, said, “With farmers concentrating majorly on rice and wheat production, it has led to the reduction of other crops. We need to understand the healthy benefits of organic farming and execute it at the earliest.” Gurmail Singh, a progressive farmer, said, “The use of chemicals has adversely affected humans. It is not just bad for the present generation, but for future generations too. The use of food stuff produced by using poisonous chemicals has decreased sperm count in men, revealed a PGI research. We must get rid of chemicals and go organic way.”
