TNAU VC: Innovations should focus on helping small farmers

Coimbatore: Innovations in agrotechnology should focus on helping farmers owning less than two acres of farmland, as they constitute 85% of the farmers in the country, said vice-chancellor of TNAU V Geethalakhmi.
Addressing students on the sidelines of ‘Global Conference and Expo on Agro Innovations 2022’ on the TNAU campus in the city on Tuesday, she said an estimated $500 million to $1 billion is expected to be invested in agrotechnology-based startups annually and urged the students to make use of the opportunity available in the sector.
She said while there has been considerable growth in agrotechnology in the past decade, it has witnessed tremendous growth in the past two years, especially since the pandemic. “There are at present estimated 600 agrotechnology-based products available in the proof of concept stage. Emerging fields in the agrotechnology are domain-driven and tech-enabled farming process, building near farm storage, optimizing the use of agri inputs, reduced labour cost through mechanization, farmers advisory data-driven crop monitoring, precision farming and environment-controlled agriculture.”
Agricultural production commissioner C Samayamoorthy said there is a plenty of opportunity available for students in sectors allied to agriculture. Students should become entrepreneurs by establishing agri-related startups rather than looking for some jobs, he said.
At the two-day expo, which was inaugurated on Tuesday, more than 60 innovations by postgraduate and research scholars from various campuses of TNAU are showcased.
The expo was organised to create a platform for industries to work with students in transforming the applied research into innovate products that can be marketed, said A Lakshmanan, dean of school of postgraduate studies, TNAU. The innovations are displayed under topics such as crop nutrition, crop care, crop improvement, post-harvest processing, herbal nutraceuticals and emerging technologies, he added.
Prashanth Subramanian, chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry, Coimbatore Zone and Mahadev Suvarna, vice president of DCM Shriram Ltd, New Delhi, also addressed students.