On Friday 21st of October 2021 a webinar on “How Agri Exhibition Industry Will Scale Up Post-Covid-19” was organized by Krishi Jagran and it was attended by various famed agricultural scholars and industrialists as speakers. The session as a whole was moderated by MC Dominic the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Krishi Jagran & Agriculture World.
Lakhan Singh Rajput, State Minister for Agriculture (Uttar Pradesh), the chief guest for this webinar spoke about how Uttar Pradesh was the first state in India to hold an Agri Exhibition after Covid and the challenges they faced as a state because of it.
The first speaker of the day was Dr BR Kamboj the Vice-Chancellor of Haryana Agricultural University. He stressed on the importance of (ICT) Information Communication Technology in uplifting the state of Indian agriculture during the pandemic and that an integrated approach of online and offline hosting of exhibitions should be used more in the future for efficient dissemination of innovative ideas in the field of agriculture.
Following Dr BR Kamboj’s speech on the Importance of ICT, Dr A.K Karnatak Vice-Chancellor of Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry took the stage to discuss the importance of real meets in exhibitions and how they are a boon to the farmers and help scientists and universities encourage farmers to diversify in what they cultivate.
Dr M.S Kundu Director of Rajendra Prasad Agricultural Central University, Bihar also strongly advocated how Krishi Vigyan Kendras played a crucial role in connecting with the farming community in Bihar and how the efficiency of the exhibitions could be maximized if farmers were taught to come in staggered groups., He also stressed on teaching farmers to find better supply chains after analyzing major industrial companies like Amul.
Naveen Seth, Assistant Director-General of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry wanted to stress on inviting and sending delegations of farmers in an exchange with different countries to help them learn from other countries.
Roli Pande, Lead of Agriculture, CII, FACE was of a similar opinion as DR BR Kamboj in the case of integrated exhibitions but she leaned more towards the customization of exhibitions to make them more efficient for the farmers.
Praveen Kumar, Vice President of the Indian Chamber of Food and Agriculture also stressed on the dissemination of information to farmers located in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
Helping the farming community with sustainable and resilient agriculture while helping them establish packaging and branding facilities was the main concern of Ravi Boratkar, Organizing secretary of Agrovision India and MD, MM Active Sci-Tech Communications.
Dr Siva Balan, the Founder of Mitra Agra Foundation, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu stated that although India was the fourth-largest exporter of agricultural products in the world Covid had totally exposed the imbalance and vulnerability in the agricultural sector. And hence, agreed with Praveen Kapoor on taking agro expos to the t2 and t3 levels and also to customize them into separate events for ease of accessibility for the farmers.
“The points discussed by each and every expert was something that is very valuable and if implemented correctly would surely uplift Agriculture & Agri exhibitions as a whole and this would only be possible if Indian Agri media reached the same level as its other media outlets to help in the faster dissemination of information,” said MC Dominic, Founder and Editor in Chief of Krishi Jagran & Agriculture World in his final note of the session.
