Multi-pronged farm strategy need of the hour: Venkaiah

Visakhapatnam: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday called for a comprehensive, multi-pronged approach to agriculture with focus on crop diversification as well as technology infusion to make the sector viable and sustainable. He also called for an end to all restrictions on the movement of foodgrains within the country so that farmers get remunerative prices for their produce. He made these comments while inaugurating the three-day AP AgTech Summit-2017, organised jointly by the Andhra Pradesh government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, at the APIIC grounds here.

"There is a general perception that agriculture is not a good economic proposition. Clearly, a business-as-usual approach will not do and we need a comprehensive, multi- pronged approach," he said. "We have to innovate and work with farmers to infuse knowledge and technology and thereby enhance productivity," Venkaiah Naidu noted. It has to be ensured that the economic benefits of increased production reach farmers, he said. "The Prime Minister has set an ambitious target of doubling the farmers' income by 2022. To achieve this, various sources of growth have to be accelerated by 33 per cent. See how gigantic the problem is," he said.

Combining information technology and agriculture technology (IT and AT) will make India mighty, he added. He said: "We have to learn lessons from the past and go for crop diversification, value-addition, food processing and better marketing. We should also keep an eye on the changing food habits."

Venkaiah Naidu said restriction on movement of foodgrains was not helping farmers realise better prices on their produce. "In one go, it must go. It had gone once, during the Janata government in 1977. Now, it should go lock, stock and barrel. One country, one food zone should be the norm," he stressed.

The Vice-President also regretted that farmers were not getting adequate institutional credit. "Affordable, timely and cheap credit is the key. It's a major challenge that needs to be addressed." Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu gave a detailed presentation on Andhra Pradesh trends. “My goal is to promote inclusive economic growth in primary sector and farmers’ happiness.

I want to use technology for agriculture, water resource development and health care,’’ he said adding that they have been pushing aggressively for organic farming. Speaking on the occasion, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Head (South Asia) Purvi Mehta said they would discuss about transformative ideas in the summit, giving top priority to small farmers. She said BMGF has been looking beyond growth figures being registered by agriculture sector.

Agriculture Minister Chandra Mohan Reddy said with the help of BMGF they want to go for advanced methods of soil testing in the state. CII President Shobana Kamineni, Agriculture, Marketing and Cooperation Department Special Chief Secretary B Rajsekhar also spoke.

HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Endowments Minister Manikyala Rao, Vizag MP Haribabu, District Collector Pravin Kumar, farmers, students, policy-makers, scientists and others were present.Earlier, the Vice-President inaugurated the Agriculture Expo put up as part of AP AgTech Summit - 2017 at the same venue.