Ronak Kothari Answers How To Make Agriculture Innovative and Help Farmers

Though agricultural scientists have made the country proud by creating food surpluses, they now face the challenge of making agriculture more innovative, competitive, and diverse while maintaining sustainability. Almost every state in the country now has an agriculture university, which is meant to assist all farmers with technical know-how in solving agriculture-related difficulties.

Ronak Kothari, CEO, Kothari Agrico informs that each of these universities is required to provide some assistance to farmers in order to move them toward more appropriate agriculture. "Our country today has foodgrains-surplus," he continues, thanking agricultural scientists for their vision, devotion, and unwavering efforts in making the Green Revolution possible in such a huge country in such a short time. However, the commensurate gain has not gone to our farmers, the bulk of whom are tiny and subsistence farmers."

He continues, "Despite the fact that the country's gross food production was surplus, the majority of food producers were poor due to decades of flawed agriculture policies that rewarded a limited number of large farms but did not support the majority of small and marginal farmers."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a mission to improve the economic situation and overall well-being of small and marginal farmers, and he has taken a number of steps to do so, including financial inclusion through the Jan Dhan Yojana, Direct Benefit Transfer, and increased MSP for farm products, among others, Ronak confirms.

He claims that a greater and more intimate link between the university and the state government is required to maximise profits from contributions in the field of agriculture from such institutions. Ronak believes that all agriculture institutions should be technically competent and emotionally interested in identifying and resolving the farmers' agricultural difficulties.

"We have to be prepared for the uncertain disastrous consequences of climate change like changing monsoon patterns, rising sea-levels, deadlier heat waves, intense storms, and flash-floods," he says, adding that "the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has come up with a roadmap that envisages to comply with various provisions. The United Nations General Assembly's recognition of 2023 as the 'International Year of Millets,' which was proposed by India and backed by more than 70 countries, offers us a boost," he concludes.