![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() One-third of the humanity is malnourished and nearly one-fourth of the world’s children are stunted-annually costing about 6–10% of GDP. The foremost challenge to the STI in India and other agriculturally-important developing countries is the increase in number of hungry and malnourished people. In this scenario, an effective STI system will be needed to disruptively transform Agriculture-Food Systems to achieve the veritable goal-leaving no one behind-especially youth and women. Today, in the midst of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the world is challenged to meet the new and emerging health and nutrition demands along with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals-Agenda 2030 (UN, 2015). Also, globally, STI continuum has been the main driver of agricultural growth, development and transformation of national socio-economic and agroecological milieus, and evolving dynamically to meet the fast changing development goals. India has been successful in building a massive ecosystem of science, technology and innovation (STI) since independence in 1947. The chapter also recommends increased investments in R&D, urgent need for enabling policy environment for scaling innovations and suggests clear transformative action points. To achieve the desired goals, this chapter highlights effective pathways for: i) scaling innovations by combining ITK, conventional methods, and adopting NextGen cutting edge technologies evolved nationally or internationally, ii) enduring STI through a Gold Class education system, and iii) leveraging strong public-private partnership. A paradigm shift is needed to: i) increase productivity, profitability, inclusiveness and efficiency of human engagement, ii) achieve complete nutrition security, iii) address the challenges of climate change, iv) adopt environment-friendly sustainable practices, and v) establish efficient farmer-market linkages. These can transform the sustenance and low return livelihood to a profitable and respectable occupation for smallholder farmers, while motivating, attracting and empowering youth and women in agriculture. ![]() Science, technology and innovation (STI), targeted to solve both generic and location-specific challenges, are key drivers for transforming agri-food systems. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |