New Delhi: To address the challenges in food security, agricultural experts vouch for accelerated adoption of modern technology like hybrid breeding and seed innovations which will boost productivity and make the sector resilient.
Elaborating on this, Chandra Ram, a farmer and an agriculture expert from Jodhpur, said, "This hybrid or modern technology is good for farmers but before using it, there is a need to educate farmers about it as they don't select all the crops in this system. Several farmers often are reluctant to use this method because, in traditional ways, all these things are easily available. But in hybrid or modern technology, they need to be purchased."
"Farmers often face issues with hybrid technology as hybrid seeds initially increase agri produce but lose their natural properties in the following years," Birender Singh Bant, a farmer of Uttar Pradesh, told ETV Bharat.
Echoing Bant, Ajai Rana, chairman of the Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII), stressed the necessity of enabling policies and collaborative frameworks to increase research for hybrid development and deployment of modern science and technology through effective research collaboration and partnership for access and benefit sharing.
As per information from ICAR, the growth of the agricultural sector has recorded 4.1 per cent since 2014 as compared to 3.5 per cent in the previous 10 years. This is driven by a 5 per cent increase in agriculture between 2017 and 2023. Although the vision of 2050 shows agriculture contributing 7 per cent of GDP, the workforce contribution will still be 27 per cent. Smallscale holdings, currently at 146 million will go up to 168 million. Hence, the inequalities, which are likely to persist, need to be addressed.
On Wednesday, Dr PK Mishra, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, highlighted the urgent need for hybrid technologies to ensure food and nutritional security for the country's growing population.
"This technology has to play a role beyond just increasing yields. It should lead to an equitable, inclusive and sustainable economic growth. It should also lead to the transformation of agriculture through increasing farmers’ incomes," Mishra said.
Hybrid technologies have to be affordable to small farmers. If research can make farmers save hybrid seeds from one season to another season without losing heterosis, as they do with crops, it would be a great scientific contribution to increasing farmers' incomes, the experts said.
Dr RS Paroda, chairman of the Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS) said, "We need to have a clear policy on GM Crops, incentivisation of the seed industry and exemption of GST on the sale of seeds."
Also Read:
