Hyderabad, April 20 : Telangana Agriculture Minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy on Tuesday said that the young talent is getting attracted to agriculture and that it will drive future growth. Speaking after inaugurating a three-day, third edition of Agri Tech South, a conference and Exhibition organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at Prof Jayashankar Telangana Agricultural versity (PJTSAU), here, Reddy said that during Kharif and Rabi seasons put together Telangana has produced more than three crore metric tonnes of paddy, which is a record production. Earlier Punjab and Haryana were considered to be food supplier states in India now Telangana has also joined that league. The Telangana government with its proactive measures such as Rythu Bandu and Rythu Bima schemes, ensuring irrigation of more than one crore acres and providing regular power supply is able to register high growth in the agriculture sector, he said. Reddy said twenty one per cent of the GSDP contribution is coming from the Agriculture sector which is a remarkable progress. The current challenges in the Agriculture sector include increased input costs and need for increasing higher productivity in the farm sector. Second largest cultivated land is in India and to feed 140 crore people in the country we need to and the sector needs to attract more young talent into this sector to drive the future growth then we could replicate similar kind growth which we have achieved in the IT Sector in Agriculture also, the Minister added. PJTSAU Vice-Chancellor Dr Praveen Rao said that agriculture across the country is changing rapidly. Technology revolution is playing a major role in this positive change which will ensure food security, he said. Simultaneously fertilizer usage also has gone up drastically. Earlier only 5-6 varieties were being produced in Telangana now many varieties are being produced. Data driven agriculture and crop diversification are going to play a major role in future and key drivers being Science, Technology and Innovation, he added. Mr Anil Kumar V Epur, Chairman, CII SR – Agriculture, Food Processing & Animal Husbandry Subcommittee said that the need for Good Agriculture Practices in Indian Agriculture is well recognized and accepted, and efforts have also been made on several fronts towards digitizing the existing value chain. Given the importance of agriculture in India, both the government and private players are working to improve the efficiency and productivity of Indian agriculture and exploring how Farming as a Service (FaaS) solutions can play a role. The end goal is to benefit the farmers, especially the small farmers, to reap the benefits of transformational innovation in agriculture, and for the industry to develop a more robust tech-enabled value chainS, he said. Mr Vagish Dixit, Chairman, CII Telangana & Managing Director, ALPLA India said that with Agriculture being one of the largest contributors to India’s GDP, CII recognizes agriculture as the fulcrum of economic growth in India. This has been reaffirmed with the agriculture sector showing impressive growth over the past two years. CII at the region and state have undertaken several initiatives to promote the growth of Agri & allied activities. Agri Tech South is one of the key initiatives of CII Southern Region – an exclusive initiative to promote Agriculture, Food Processing and its allied sectors in South India for the last three years, he added. Mr Suresh Chitturi, Vice Chairman, CII SR – Agriculture, Food Processing & Animal Husbandry Subcommittee, & Managing Director, Srinivasa Farms and Mr Michiel van Erkel, Agriculture Counselor for India and Sri Lanka, The Netherlands Embassy in India also spoke on the occasion. The three day agri technology exhibition has about 75 exhibitors and B2B meetings are being organized. Agri Tech South 2022 is focusing on Agriculture, Post-harvest Management & Food Processing, Farm Machinery, Implements, Fertilizers & Seeds, E-NAM, Organic Farming, Agri Finance, Insurance & Marketing, Micro-irrigation & Integrated Farming Systems, Horticulture, Dairy, Fisheries, Poultry, Floriculture, New Technologies and Start-ups. VV RKM