Launching the CSIR Prima ET11, the first indigenous e-Tractor developed by the Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI), Durgapur, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today underlined the role of Agri StartUps in India’s economy and called for the adoption of new and AI driven technologies in Agriculture.
The Minister said, an increasing number of new Startups are venturing into the Agriculture sector, focussing on niche technologies including e-Tractor, recycling garbage, drip irrigation, Genome sequenced farming such as Mango and Lotus, he said.
“This is one sector in which India has rather not taken up the pace that was required,” said Dr Jitendra Singh, adding, “This is a huge unexplored resource, which is only exclusive to India. Those countries which had been promoting IT, have been promoting from their point of view because they have their assets; they don’t have the agri asset that we have. So we don’t have to ape them. If I have plenty of agriculture resource, why not I make use of it… Therefore, this route would be a very important component in India’s future economy in the next 25 years.”
