Ker global meet to chart ways to modernise agri, emulate best fisheries practices

Encouraging scientificmodernisation as the base for a breakthrough in agriculture,Kerala is set to learn further from global developments infarming and emulate best practices in fisheries to improveproduction, marketing and supply-chain infrastructure in thetwo key sectors.

At a three-day global meet next week, the state willfocus on agriculture as an important staging ground forrecovery in a post-COVID-19 economy, an official release saidhere on Friday.

The February 1-3 Kerala Looks Ahead conference andconsultation, being organised by the State Planning Board,comes in the aftermath of the government announcing a large-scale agricultural programme that emphasises on production,value addition and marketing, it said.

The session on agriculture on February 2 would seeexperts discussing ways to bridge yield gaps and increasingproduction in select crops.

''In order to ensure productivity growth, Kerala has toembrace the best technologies in use globally, particularlywith respect to modern seeds and planting material and cropmanagement,'' Planning Board Vice-Chairperson V K Ramachandransaid.

''We also need to strengthen extension methodologies thatare new and IT-based,'' he said.

As for fisheries, it remains under-utilised despiterecent progress owing to official and public enthusiasm,according to Planning Board Member Secretary Venu V.

Active local governments and peoples participationprovide a unique support mechanism for decentralised fisherydevelopment, he said, adding the sector got increasedgovernment support in the past four years, during which inlandfish production rose by 15 per cent till 2018-19.

There would be two technical sessions on the fisheriessector, covering fisheries resources marine, brackish-waterand freshwater their mariculture prospects, issues ofvarieties, scale and productivity.

Experts would also deliberate on marketing and supplychains, fish processing and value addition, besides the futureof fisheries education and training.

The speakers include Kerala Minister for Fisheries andHarbour Engineering J Mercikutty Amma, World Food PrizeLaureate, Dr Modadugu Vijay Gupta,Ben Belton of Department ofAgricultural, Food and Resource Economics with Michigan StateUniversity.

The three sub-sessions on agriculture would also lookinto new forms of production organisation and emulateinternational experience in successful farmers cooperativesand would be addressed among others by state AgricultureMinister V S Sunil Kumar and ICAR Director-General TrilochanMohapatra.

According to governmentsources, the slogan for theagricultural sector in the ongoing 13th Five-Year Plan is toenhance productivity, profitability, and sustainability.

The inaugural session of February 1 will be addressed byNobel laureate economist Prof Joseph Stiglitz and Dr SoumyaSwaminathan, Chief Scientist with the World HealthOrganisation, the release added.