Smart Agriculture

India needs a robust and modernized agriculture towards food security for its growing rural and urban population of over 1.3 billion. For this, it needs sustained agricultural productivity for sustained growth of its agricultural sector. Simultaneously, climate change and its negative impact on crop productivity is now a reality that poses new challenges for sustainable agriculture. As a result, India has the highest number of severely malnourished children under the age of five, while 14 percent of the population is undernourished. The most important sustainability goals (SDGs), such as zero poverty and zero hunger, are interdependent because agriculture employs over half of the Indian working population and contributes 17-18% of the country's GDP. Smart agriculture must become part of achieving the larger goal of sustainability, writes Dr. Vibha Dhawan, Director General, TERI.