“Innovations in Agrotechnology Should Focus on Helping Small Farmers,” TNAU VC

Agrotechnology innovations should concentrate on assisting 85% of small-scale farmers, said TNAU Vice-Chancellor V Geethalakhmi.

Speaking to students on the TNAU campus 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 take advantage of the opportunity available in the sector. The event was "Global Conference and Expo on Agro Innovations 2022."

While agrotechnology has grown significantly over the previous ten years, especially after the pandemic, it has grown even more over the past two years, according to her. There are currently 600 agrotechnology-based products in the proof of concept stage, according to estimates. Domain-driven and technology-enabled farming processes, near-farm storage, maximising the use of agricultural inputs, labour cost reduction through mechanisation, farmers' advisory data-driven crop monitoring, precision farming, and environment-controlled agriculture are emerging fields in agrotechnology.

There are several opportunities for students in industries related to agriculture, according to agricultural production commissioner C Samayamoorthy. Instead of hunting for employment, he advised students to launch startups in the agricultural sector.

More than 60 innovations made by postgraduate and research academics from several TNAU campuses are on display during the two-day expo, which began on Tuesday.

According to A Lakshmanan, dean of the school of postgraduate studies at TNAU, the purpose of the expo was to provide a forum for businesses to collaborate with students to develop innovative goods that can be commercialised using the results of applied research. According to him, the advancements are shown under categories including post-harvest processing, herbal nutraceuticals, crop nutrition, crop care, crop development, and emerging technologies.

Both Mahadev Suvarna, vice president of DCM Shriram Ltd., New Delhi, and Prashanth Subramanian, head of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Coimbatore Zone, spoke to the students.