Hyderabad:  India’s future and that talented youth can play a key role in empowering farmers through digital technology and digital agriculture, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.

The Prime Minister also inaugurated ICRISAT’s Climate Change Research Facility on Plant Protection and ICRISAT’s Rapid Generation Advancement Facility. These two facilities are dedicated to the smallholder farmers of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. He also unveiled a specially designed logo of ICRISAT and launched a commemorative stamp issued on the occasion.

He participated in the Golden Jubilee celebrations of ICRISAT at Patancheru. In his address at the Golden Jubilee celebrations, he suggested that Institute and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to expand their partnership for higher productivity and water management in dry land areas to digital agriculture. He claimed that India has stepped up its efforts in using latest technology like AI in areas like crop assessment, land records digitization, deployment of drones for spraying of insecticides and nutrients and providing various services.

On one hand, we are focusing on expanding production of millets, chemical free farming while on the other we are using modern technology from solar pumps to deploying drones. This is a key part of our vision for agriculture growth for the next 25 years, Modi said. Government was trying to develop ecosystems linked to agriculture research and working with private agri-tech players to provide affordable and high-tech services to farmers.

India was also focusing on establishing FPOs and agriculture value chain. We wish to create an alert and potent market force out of small farmers by organizing them into thousands of FPOs, he said. Modi said that the worst affected by climate change are the people on the last run of development with little resources. He reiterated India’s request to the world to pay special attention to the climate change. He talked of LIFE- Lifestyle for Environment; P3 – Pro planet people movements and India’s net zero target by 2070. Pro planet people is a movement that connects every community, every individual with climate responsibility to tackle the climate challenge.

This is not limited to just words, but is also reflected in the actions of the Government of India, he added. He visited an exhibition displaying various achievements, scientific agricultural breakthroughs and innovations of the Institute since 1972 which address poverty, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the harshest dry land regions of the world.

Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy, ICRISAT Director General Dr Jacqueline Hughes was among those present on the occasion.