NextGen tech crucial for addressing future agri challenges: Himanshu Pathak

Next generation technologies, including AI, genome editing, genomics, phenomics, machine learning, robotics, drones, and big data analytics, will play a crucial role in addressing future challenges in Indian agriculture, according to Himanshu Pathak, Director General, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Hyderabad.

He was delivering the Foundation Day Lecture on ‘Food to nutrition, income and environmental security, and next generation agriculture’, organised to mark the birth anniversary of agricultural scientist S. W. Menasinkai at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad on February 1.

Mr. Pathak highlighted the significant growth in production of foodgrains, oilseeds, pulses, eggs, milk, and horticultural crops from the 1950s onwards, which he said, improved productivity and made India a major exporter.

Presiding over the programme, UAS-Dharwad Vice-Chancellor Professor P. L. Patil recalled the pioneering efforts of S. W. Menasinkai in enrolling students during the initial years of the agricultural college, which helped the institution grow and eventually attain the status of a university.

Members of the Board of Management, former vice-chancellors, university officers, teachers and students participated in the event along with Menasinakai Foundation vice-president V. B. Kuligod and the foundation’s secretary S. A. Desai.