Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy has stated that increasing urbanisation has been seriously impacting food production and consumption across the world and there is an urgent need to focus both on production and productivity of the foodgrains keeping in mind the shrinking resources — land and water.

Speaking at Digital Ag India Conference held here on Tuesday, he said the world’s population was expected to cross 9.6 billion by 2050 and it would bring a huge demand for food. However, those practising farming were coming down, including in India, and only 28% of the world population, including 570 million of small and marginal farmers, were depending on agriculture and food production sectors for their livelihoods.

He underscored the need to bring in drastic reforms in agriculture sector for its sustainable development and also to meet the United Nations call for achieving sustainable and hunger-free society. The Minister suggested linking the agriculture sector with technology for its faster and sustainable growth by using mobile and remote sensing technologies, at a time when their use had become extensive.

Stating that the agriculture sector had reached the present stage overcoming several challenges, the Minister said there was greater need to bring in another green revolution by linking technology. Towards that there was a need to change the existing farming practices, rural economy and management of natural resources, he noted.

Vice-Chancellor of Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University V. Praveen Rao, ITC Director Shiva Kumar, professor of Indian School of Business Ashwini Chatre and others spoke at the event.