Hyderabad : The Bio Agri Inputs Producers Association’s (BIPA) 4th edition of Bio Agri 2024, a premier conference and expo dedicated to sustainable biological agriculture began on Tuesday at Ramoji Film City. The theme of the two-day meeting is “Biological Agriculture: Harnessing Nature’s Wisdom”.
Over 250 delegates from the Agri-input industry across India, the USA and other countries are participating. 35 speaker sessions and panel discussions are lined up during the two days, said Dr KRK Reddy, President of BIPA in his opening remarks.
Delivering the first keynote address on ‘Soil and Water Management Solutions for Agriculture Transition in the Age of Climate Change,’ Dr V Praveen Rao, Vice Chancellor of Kaveri University, asked the industry to produce more food grains with fewer resources.
From 1960 to 2023, there is no success story parallel to Indian agriculture. India’s global dominance extends across agricultural commodities. Agri-exports stand at 53.15 billion US $. India has the potential to produce 550 million tonnes of food grains. But, this success has a cost. We have many challenges. The food demand has increased from 71% from 2010 to 2050. He asked why food nutritional security and sustainability matter today.?
India experienced extreme weather events on 255 of the 274 days (Jan 1st to Sept 30, 2024) or little ever 93% of the days in the first nine months of the year. Extreme weather events killed 3,238 people and affected 3.2 million hectares of crop area and killed over 9457 animals. Nearly 80% of smallholder farmers in India could be affected by at least one climate hazard. The global freshwater demand will outstrip supply by 40% by 2030. The water demand will be 1195 billion cubic meters
Climate change is impacting crop yields. A lot of food is wasted.50 kg of food is wasted per person per year in Indian homes. Around 6.7 crore tonnes of food is wasted which is valued at around Rs 92,000 crore. We stand third in the world after the USA and China in terms of food wastage. On a global scale, over one billion tons of food is lost or wasted each year. 24% of the world’s calories go uneaten due to food loss, he said.
I not only speak about problems. I will also suggest a few solutions, said Dr Praveen Rao. He gave many solutions for sustainable agriculture and innovations in Agri-Food Systems. He suggested Smart Agriculture and fertigation(a technique that involves applying liquid or water-soluble fertilizers to crops through an irrigation system), crop shifting, Regenerative Agriculture and others.
The varietal shift in Rice in Telangana resulted in increased yield and made it India’s top-producing state. He suggested strategies for decarbonisation technologies to enable the transition to sustainable rice-based cropping systems. Sensors for higher water and fertilizer use efficiency. He spoke about Cover Crops. A cover crop is a crop grown for the soil, instead of for our plate, he explained.
In conclusion, Dr Praveen said our food basket also must be in tune with our national target, but which is not so as of now. To highlight this point he gave an example of 300 trucks full of sheep being transported to Hyderabad every day for the meat requirement of the people and the number goes to 500 on Sundays. And imagine how much this adds to carbon footprint, water etc he said.
Another keynote speaker Dr Roger Tripathi, Founder & CEO, of Global BioAg Innovations, US said Agro Biological is gaining focus. Biologicals will be the next agricultural technology revolution. Biological agricultural products are expected to replace chemical pesticides and fertilizers in the $240 billion crop protection and fertilizer market in future.
An exhibition was also inaugurated and it has 40 stalls showcasing cutting-edge technologies and innovative solutions.
Dr Venaktesh Devanur, Secretary of BIPA while giving his annual report said India is a global biological hub. He spoke about why biologicals are important and why India is important. The Government of India has taken a step towards ensuring the quality and safety of bio-stimulants used in agriculture by way of a regulatory framework. Unfortunately, Microbials were not included in it. BIPA has prevailed on the government and ensured that biologicals are also included in it, he informed
