Strengthening Agri-Innovations

Food, central to our existence, has singularly proved to be a mechanism for global governance. India continues to combat hunger and confront food crises in a backdrop of an ever growing population. The country has engaged in a wide range of historical debates from scientific, political-ideological, to even ethical. Agriculture has been from ancient times the mainstay of the population, yet the country remains innovation hungry. The agro-food-tech has been largely supply driven and thus remained unable to capture the entire ambit of agriculture. A preferred set of crops has emerged that have come to be understood to have caused health and nutritional imbalance among the people. And now a relatively recent growth trajectory is being drawn to include genetically modified crops in the food basket. This issue of G’nY includes viewpoints of experts who argue that various successful methods exist, opposed to genetic modification, that offer fetching results quite easily. The imbroglio of the agro-food-tech debate may just as well be avoided if certain scientific methods are adopted, say for example soil sensors among others, which help apprise the farmer about specific nutritional requirements of his land. Efficient water usage, better soil health, low cost high-yielding inputs, well-positioned cold chains, small and marginal farmer cooperatives, and innovative farm to market interfaces would ensure a higher output in a relatively short period.

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