Experts’ Speak - Protect Our Livelihood
“Agriculture 4.0, a considerably more advanced variant of precision farming, has the potential to transform the traditional farming industry. It refers to the use of the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, artificial intelligence, and robotics, to extend, accelerate, and improve the efficiency of activities throughout the entire production chain.” 
Nutritional advantages apart, millets are hardy and drought-resistant crops. This has to do with their short duration (70-100) days, against 115-150 days for rice and wheat), lower water requirement (350-500 mm versus 600-1,250 mm) and ability to grow even on poor soils and in hilly terrain. However, millets are not the first choice either of consumers or of farmers. The rice area in India has shown a mild shift, both temporally and spatially — from the rain-fed eastern belt to the drier north-west, served by controlled irrigation — despite a declining trend of rainfall observed in both the regions. The shift is part of the broader changes in land use. The agriculture for tomorrow is going to be science-based, and the winners will be those who adopt it and develop it further today. Innovation is the name of the game, and “Jai Anusandhan” is a good slogan given by PM Modi. But it will have meaning only when the government goes ahead with not just GM Mustard but also fast-tracks Ht Bt cotton, Bt Brinjal, and even GM soya and corn. While agriculture gets severely impacted by climate change, it also leads to almost 28 per cent of the global greenhouse gas (CHG) emissions thus contributing to global warming. So, it is time to invest not only in climate adaption strategies but also re-work our policies that can mitigate GHG emissions for agriculture. The net zero carbon target seems an ambitious one. Though a bit late, it can serve humanity well, if sincerely implemented and this planet can still feed more than 10 billion people. It is this science of precision farming that can give us “more from less”. The innovations and developments in GIS (Geographical Information System), AIML (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning), which can use enormous data to bring about precision in farming, use of sensors, drones, doves, and LEOs (low earth orbits), space technologies, cloud computing, are all bursting out to provide the basis for a revolutionary epoch. Drips, hydroponics, and aeroponics, vertical farming, are all available for mankind to get much more with very little exploitation of the planet’s natural resource endowment There is a lot of scope for R&D in agriculture, especially in the development of high-yielding seeds, creation of an efficient plant disease forecast system, and effective post-harvest management. While national food security is important, there’s a need to focus on value-added exports in food processing.
Export bans on food items show somewhat irresponsible behaviour at the global level, unless there is some major calamity in the country concerned. India is in a fortunate situation that for food, it is largely self-reliant, except in the case of edible oils where it imports 55-60 per cent of its consumption. Think about how India felt when Indonesia banned exports of its palm oil. India has identified 2.8 million hectares of area where oil palm can be grown suitably. So far the objective of NEOM-OP [the National Edible Oil Mission - Oil Palm] is to bring in at least 1 million hectare under oil palm by 2025-26. Given the way international prices of edible oils have surged in the last year or so (by more than 70 per cent), it may be time for India to ramp up its efforts in developing oil palm. What is clear is that India is focussing more on agriculture, says Jain [Kamal Jain, Partner, Risk Advisory Practice, KPMG in India]. “Even if you look at GDP, the share of agriculture was coming down, but we see it again inching upwards of about 20%. There is a focus, so that agriculture becomes an area of revenue. Maybe at this point there may not be enough available in terms of agri exports, but we should create the capacity and the ideas to move in that direction,” adds Jain.