Agriculture has always stood as one of the vital pillars of Indian economy. There has been an emerging need for striking a balance between the demand and supply of agricultural produce. With expansion of agriculture land growing as a major challenge to the agriculture sector efficient and effective use of the available land bank to enhance production becomes the need of the hour. It thus becomes highly warranting to spread awareness on the technological advancements in this sector. World Trade Center Bhubaneswar collaborated with Center for Incubation and Innovation (CII), Utkal University, DBT-Bioincubator, Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) Bhubaneswar, Center for Agri-Management (CAM), Utkal University & Krushijeevika Producer Company Limited to organize an introductory session on skill development initiative on the theme “Advanced Agriculture”. The session was conducted on a virtual mode with intent to provide handholding support to the emerging Agripreneurs, Start-ups & FPOs and orient them on the advanced techniques, methods or processes used in the production of goods.

Dr. Manisha Acharya, CEO, Center for Innovation and Incubation, Utkal University in her deliberations made a detailed presentation on the scope for Start-ups in Agriculture Sector. She emphasized on the opportunities as well as the challenges for Agripreneurship in India and also extended support to the Agri-Enthusiasts & Start-ups. She further highlighted few case studies of some of the successful start-ups.

Dr. Nivedita Jena, COO, DBT-Bioincubator, Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) in her address spoke about the advanced technologies that can be incorporated in the sector to enhance the productivity & yield intensification. She also highlighted the significance of technologies in minimizing the post harvest losses and made a presentation on the major technological innovations in Agriculture, emerging trends in entrepreneurship and various value addition activities in the sector.

Mr. Sukumar Dash, CEO, Krushijeevika Producer Company Limited spoke on the major challenges faced by the various stakeholders of the sector. While primarily speaking about the bottlenecks faced by the FPO’s in gaining market linkages he deliberated on the significance of marketing & promotion in the sector.  He also spoke about various aspects of quality control and how the age-old methods of farming, exposure constraint & labour scarcity can be addressed to strengthen the Agricultural Sector in Odisha.

Mr. Pranabandhu Nayak, Co-Founder, Tiril & One FPO made a data driven preposition for the FPOs and Start-ups. He spoke about how lack of funds, lack of willingness, excessive dependence on grants/government support & lack of credible data points needs to be addressed.

Earlier in the session, Mr. Pradipta Mohanty, Chairman, SNM Group & Convenor, WTC Bhubaneswar Agriculture & Food Processing Think Tank welcomed all the esteemed speakers to the webinar. While highlighting the immense scope for the positive developments in the sector, he also spoke on the logjams in the Agriculture & Food Processing Sector. He opined on how technology can assist in enhancing the efficiency and productivity in the respective sectors.

Mr. Jatindra Mishra, Course Head, Center for Agri-Management (CAM), Utkal University in his address deliberated on the significance of sustainable farming & how there needs to be a proper nexus between FPOs, Farmers, Agripreneurs, experts and enthusiasts.

Mr. Jeevan Sangram Dash, Founder, Basal Initiatives & Member of WTC Bhubaneswar in his address spoke about the existing digital gaps in the sector. He further shared details on the operational model undertaken by Basal initiatives to be an interface  between the FPO’s and the investors in the sector for dealing with some the major bottlenecks faced by them such as procurement identification, quality assurance, market linkages, fund allocation, technological awareness & risk management.

The webinar was followed by a highly interactive Q&A session. Ms. Nimeshika Natarajan, Assistant Director, World Trade Centre Bhubaneswar proposed the vote of thanks.