OdishaPlus Bureau
The global climate change and temperature index has hit quite a few enterprises hard but most affected among the lot remains the agriculture sector. This point was emphasized enough at the seminar on ‘Climate Smart Technology, Water Resources Management for Better Irrigation and Productivity in Agriculture’. The seminar was part of the knowledge sharing exercise at the state level Krushi Odisha agri fair underway in Bhubaneswar.
The panel of experts for the seminar was composed of Mr. JK Rath, Chairman, FICCI MSME Committee, Odisha, Mr. Tapan Padhy- Director of water and forestry programme, RCDC, Mr. Anjan Mandal, Chief of Sales and Marketing, SkyMet Weather Services Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Pushpendra Johari, Senior Vice President (Sustainability), RMSI Pvt. Ltd. Noida and Dr. Sangita Ladha, Vice President, Marketing & Business Development, Jain Irrigation.
Mr. JK Rath invited the distinguished speakers to the dais and stressed the importance of learning and using modern technology, especially for the student audiences present in the seminar. He also said that in today’s times, food security is very important. He also stressed the need of efficient water management and the use of technology in farming.
Mr. Tapan Padhy said that we should focus on empowerment of community because sustenance is important. He also laid stress on the important community interventions like drinking water, sanitation and water conservation. He said that the climate has already won the war between humans and itself. SO it is high time we start thinking on climate smart agriculture and sustain it because in the coming years, the lands will be less, the productivity may become less but the demand for food will double itself by 2050 and we have to be prepared for the same.
Mr. Anjan Mandal elaborated that the climate is not the same as before, the rains are depleted every year. He said that “India is home to 17 percent of the world’s population while our total crop land is only 2.7 percent of the world. Agriculture in India is rainfed, it is always dependent on rainfall. So our company SkyMet Weather helps farmers plan irrigation in times of erratic weather conditions.”
“For our farmer friends in the country, we have developed the SkyMitra app, which helps the farmers in micro area weather forecasting in seven languages like English, Hindi, Gujrati, Marathi, Telugu, Odia and Punjabi. We also provide disease alert and advisory.” 70 percent of all agri insurance companies depend on SkyMet weather to settle crop insurance claims, Mr. Mandal said further.
He also informed that his company has more than 7000 Automated Weather Stations (AWS) of which, over 100 AWS have been installed in Bhadrak, Balasore and Ganjam districts which help the farmers with remote sensing via the ‘SkyMitra’ App.
Dr. Sangita Ladha, holds an M.Tech degree from IIT Kharagpur. She is an expert in greenhouse technology and precision farming. Dr. Sangita was former Director, Indo Dutch Training Centre, Jaipur. She said that the worst effect of climate is on agriculture and subsequently on water.
If there is no water, there is no agriculture. She went on to explain how 90 Percent of water is used by agriculture activity in India. Hence she suggested that drip water irrigation is the way forward for sustainable and water conservative agriculture in India.
Mr. Pushpendra Johari, opined that agrarian distress is a big issue in our country. “Despite all interventions, natural calamities may still impact farmers. Hence, It is important to build a strong social security net for them. It’s heartening to know that Central and State Governments are working in the right direction regarding this. It is important to identify the actual distressed farmers and aid them by all means possible”, said Mr. Johari. The seminar was followed by a healthy discussion among the audience members and panelists who answered a few important questions/queries of the attendees on the given topic.
‘Krushi Odisha’, the annual flagship five day exhibition cum agri fest, organized by Dept. of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Govt. of Odisha in collaboration with FICCI is being held from 20-24 January 2020 at Janata Maidan, Bhubaneswar. The mega programme which envisages leading farmers to profitability, involves various aspects like farm income, implements, modern technology in farming, financial assistance to farmers and capacity building.