Addressing the G-20 Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting at Berlin, Germany Union Minister Radha Mohan Singh said India will continue to extend their support in early implementation of past commitments made at the G20 Agriculture Ministers Meetings.
He specifically referred to the commitments made in the field of Research and Development, collaboration and knowledge transfer, action to combat food loss and waste, and information and communication technologies (ICT).
The Minister added that in India, ICT has proved to be an effective and powerful medium to disseminate information on agronomic practices, prices, fertilizer and pesticide use and weather and pest related advisories.
Many new initiatives have been taken in order to develop an integrated approach for communication process in the agricultural sector. These include: launch of agricultural web portals, mobile apps and a dedicated broadcasting channel. Moreover, with the objective to reform the agriculture marketing system in the country, a National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) portal has been launched which provides a pan-India electronic trading, Minister underlined.
This e-marketing platform is expected to help farmers in facilitating better price discovery through efficient, transparent and competitive marketing platform; better marketing of agricultural produce; reducing wastages; and getting market related information and with access to large number of buyers from within and outside the State through transparent auction processes, he added.
Singh said in order to promote efficient irrigation practices in the country, a major irrigation programme was launched by the government in 2015 with emphasis on improving water-use efficiency through, water conservation/ rainwater harvesting and use of micro-irrigation.
The role of G20 economies in achieving the sustainable global food security assumes significant importance and there is a growing consensus that the challenges of maintaining food and nutritional security need innovative solutions through collaborative and coordinated polices among the member as well as non-member countries, Singh underlined.