The agro and food processing sector saw 408 MoUs being signed during the three days of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2019 held at Mahatma Mandir on Sunday.

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Speaking at a session on sustainable technology driven agriculture of new India, Parshottam Rupala, Union minister of state for Agriculture said that there was a need to focus on value addition to agri products. Rupala said that 90% of India's castor is produced in Gujarat yet hardly a small percentage of it get processed or valued added here. "A successful pilot project in the field of animal husbandry now means a farmer can be assured that the cow will give birth to a female calf. So essentially the government's beti bachao programme has reached here too," Rupala joked while elaborating on the use of technology.

The seminar also saw the government entering into nine MoUs worth Rs 31800 crore with NABARD in the field of rural and dairy infrastructure development, climate change and credit facilities among others.

Kunvarji Bavalia, minister of animal husbandry in the Gujarat government said that soon three frozen semen units will also be set up in the state. Ashok Dalwai, CEO National Rainfed Area Authority said that it was time to forget the green revolution and concentrate on income revolution. "One of the learnings of the green revolution was that it was very extractive, severely affecting the resources . We need sustainable techniques," said Dalwai. He also called upon to strengthen post harvesting management including storage, food processing and linking the local to international agri systement. "And this needs to be done not just for the crops but for meat, airy and horticulture too," said Dalwai.

Aditya Shah, MD, Amnex said that data analytics can go a long way in not only helping the government know about farming but also the farmer in gaining critical information. He said it is being used to help farmers detect what is ailing their crops and how to remedy it.