Mysuru: Maintaining that the agriculture sector needed more push along with the introduction of reforms to spur growth, Prof. S.Ayyappan, former Director General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research  (ICAR) stressed on the need for making farming smart just as smart cities.

He was speaking after inaugurating the day-long Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) Foundation Day celebrations  inside CFTRI this morning. Regretting the shortage of agricultural scientists in the country, Prof. Aiyyappan noted that a small country like Israel has 6,000 scientists for every ten lakh population while a predominantly agricultural country that India is, has only 216 of them for a million population.

Prof. Ayyappan presented a Power-Point Presentation on various topics related to agriculture, which included agriculture education, Issues and challenges, climate smart village/farm, transforming agriculture to agripreneurship, emerging paradigms, current global food situation, hunger and malnutrition.

The event also featured signing of MoU’s with start-ups and Food and Agri industry entrepreneurs.

CFTRI Director Dr. KSMS Raghavarao, senior scientist Dr. Nandini Shetty and others were present.