India to play its rightful role in feeding world: Chouhan at G-20 Agri Working Group meet

Indore: Over As the first meeting of G-20 Agriculture Working Group kicked off on Monday, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan expressed that bumper production of wheat crops is expected that would break all previous records of foodgrains productions in the country.

While asserting that every nation should work towards sustainable agricultural practices, the Madhya Pradesh CM further said that the G-20 meet will bring out solutions like new technologies for enhancing farm productivity and India will play a major role in feeding the world keeping in mind the global food security concerns.

Notably, India is the world’s second largest wheat producer and largest fruits and vegetable producer.

While addressing the first Agriculture Deputies’ Meeting, Chouhan said that the need of the hour is to focus on three main areas – increasing production, reducing cost of cultivation and ensuring better prices to the farmers.

“India is already working towards this direction. Food security is a major concern before the world due to rising population. By 2030, the global foodgrains demand is estimated to be 345 million tonne as against 192 million tonne in the year 2000,” he said, adding that only 12 percent of the world’s arable land is suitable for agriculture.

“It’s a fact that neither the land is going to increase nor the natural resources. Therefore, it is necessary to utilise land and natural resources in a better way and increase the farm productivity to meet the future food demand,” Chouhan added.

“I am confident that the G-20 summit will help boost the farm sector by connecting new technologies through local organizations and India will play its rightful role in feeding the world,” he said, adding that there are many export opportunities for different varieties of wheat produced in Madhya Pradesh and we are working towards exploit all the available opportunities as the entire world is facing food security challenges due to the growing population.

Present on the occasion, Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja said that around 90 delegates from 30 nations, including and representatives of international organizations, attended the three-day event.

Chouhan also inaugurated an exhibition that showcased millets and its value-added food products apart from the allied farm sector. Chauhan also said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India had brought advanced technology and several innovations like soil health card, drone technology, digitisation etc in the agriculture sector. The world is not only seeing towards them but also learning from it, he added. Chouhan further added that United Nations has announced Millet Year-2023 on the proposal of India, PM Modi has named millets ‘Shri Ann’, adding that at the venue, an exhibition has also been organised to promote millets.

During the three-day event, issues such as climate-smart initiatives, adoption of climate-smart technology by small farmers as well as agriculture market information system, wheat initiatives, agriculture risk management and reduction of food loss will be discussed in detail. Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is scheduled to be present on second day of the show.