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NAVI platform for dialogue with financiers, incubators launched at CII meet
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Thursday, 03 September, 2015, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, New Delhi
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fiogf49gjkf0d Network of Agri-startups, Venture Financiers and Incubators (NAVI), an exclusive platform for dialogue with venture financiers, incubators and mentors, was launched by Siraj Hussain, secretary, department of agriculture and cooperation, Union ministry of agriculture, at the recently-held CII Agri Technology and Mechanization Summit 2015. The event was aimed at encouraging agri entrepreneurs to Pitch, Present and Promote their ideas.
Hussain later addressed the inaugural session of the event. He pointed out the challenges confronting the agriculture sector, and the distress caused to farmers owing to high cost of credit, low price of produce, recurring drought like conditions, high cost of agri inputs and inadequate market access.
He highlighted the role of technology in agriculture and hence urged the forum to deliberate on the whole gamut of technologies and not just restrict the discussions to mechanisation. He also mentioned the need to consider and adopt technologies that cater to the local needs and conditions – relative low wage rural labour, smallholding (average farm size of 1.16 hectare and projected to shrink to 0.24 hectare by 2050).
Hussain reaffirmed the commitment of the government to make funding available for water conservation and optimal utilisation of water resources given the fast deteriorating condition in India. He pointed out the need to look at technologies from Israel and other countries who have successfully tackled these problems. He also mentioned about the Custom Hiring Centre model of the government designed to give farmers an option to hire machines, and equipment and not be compelled to take loans to buy such machineries.
In his opening remarks, S Sivakumar, chairman, CII national council on agriculture, & chief executive ABD, ITC, spoke about the relevance of the summit given that agriculture is at a crucial juncture – economic viability, and dignity of labour are key concerns. He emphasised upon the importance of technology in overcoming the challenges put forth by erratic weather conditions, price risk, and drudgery of agriculture labour. It is important to ensure that the next generation looks at agriculture as an attractive enterprise. In addition to technology, Sivakumar emphasised on the role of other institutions such as insurance and derivative markets that can address the risks involved in agriculture.
In the theme address, Dr Daniel Chamovitz, dean, George S Wise, faculty of life sciences, & director, Manna Center for Plant Biosciences, Tel Aviv University, made an interesting presentation on the need for academia, industry and other stakeholders to come together to make technology achieve the much-needed breakthrough in agriculture and address the bigger issue of attaining food security. He highlighted the fact that how Israel with less than 80% of their land classically unarable meets 80% of their food requirements through domestic production. Dr Chamovitz mentioned about the possible partnership between India and Israel on technology development to benefit agro-science sector in both the countries and multilateral collaborations between academia and industry.
Delivering the keynote address, Dr Vipin Kumar, chief innovation officer, National Innovation Foundation, presented before the forum fascinating innovations which are extremely localised and address operational challenges in the agriculture sector. He emphasised on the need for participatory research to ensure that the right technologies are being ideated, developed that have a problem-solving quotient. Availability of mechanisation for the entire value chain is important given the kind of issues faced by the farmers and primary producers in the agriculture sector.
Dr David Bergvinson, director-general, International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), delivering the special address, emphasised that technology played an important role in Indian agriculture given the nature of farm holdings and pressure on natural resources and labour. Technologies such as remote sensing, drones, soil health cards, mobile money among others are relevant and have the potential to address productivity challenges and overall growth of the sector.
Dr Bergvinson pointed out the need for an ecosystem of integrated services offered through public and private sector providers, civil society and farmer organisations. Salil Singhal, co-chair, CII national council on agriculture, CMD, PI Industries, in his concluding remarks reiterated the need to understand that increasing economic unviability and drudgery in Indian agriculture are key concerns and need to be addressed through sustainable measures. Singhal emphasised on the need to ensure grassroot innovations need to be taken to fruition, commercialisation and successful uptake at the field level. With respect to digitisation of agriculture, he referred to the need to consider means and partnerships to achieve the same.
The summit was attended by about 200 participants including government representatives, academia, agribusiness leaders, experts, international think-tanks, and agri entrepreneurs, financiers and incubators from across India.
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