Maintaining productivity, value chain challenges in agriculture: Experts

A national-level agricultural management fest at the IIPM campus took place.

Bengaluru: Agriculture was the only industry free of turmoil during the Covid pandemic, which instead witnessed a huge growth in food processing and export, said Dr Rakesh Mohan Joshi, Director, Indian Institute of Plantation Management, on Friday. 

Speaking at Nirvah 24, a national-level agricultural management fest at the IIPM campus, he said, “A great majority of the Indian population relies on farming. Agriculture, as a discipline, is social as well as political. When there have been inflations in history, people died of starvation, making agriculture and farming highly political. We are very fortunate to have chosen agriculture as our professional discipline.” 

Adding to it, he said, “One of the greatest challenges in the Indian agricultural market is to maintain productivity and value chain, right from farm to fork,” while adding that studying agriculture management as a discipline ensures that the farmer’s efforts are valued. 

Dr Jayakara Shetty, Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University, who inaugurated the session, said that he was born into an agricultural family and would like to go back to his roots. 

“The vastness of farmland has been decreasing over the years due to the demands of our modern society such as electricity, better infrastructure, improved roads, which may have led to soil erosion and other challenges,” he said, expressing concern over increased migration of the rural population, typically from agricultural backgrounds into urban areas. 

There were over 200 participants from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.