India earns more than Rs. 60,000 crore by exporting basmati and other rice varieties; basmati alone gives us Rs.35,000-Rs.40,000 crore, that is because of its supremacy in the global market. This is a niche area and we have to create more such niche areas (for India) as we go along, said Trilochan Mohapatra, Chairperson in the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority, Govt of India, at the 44th annual convocation of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore.

The graduation ceremony was presided over by R.N.Ravi, Governor of Tamil Nadu and Chancellor of the varsity. Prof.V.Geethalakshmi, the Vice Chancellor and other senior members of the varisity including registrar,deans, directors, head of various departments and degree-candidates attended.

Trilochan Mohapatra in his presidential address said that if we need to really manage our food system to meet the challenges posed by climate change, degradation of soil, droughts etc., then we need to grow at the annual rate of 4%.

“This growth in crop sector has not been possible; crop sector grows at about 2%... As you all know, we also have a target that by 2047, when we expect to be a developed nation and our economy grows to the tune of $30-35 trillion, at that time what should be the food production level? Today we are comfortable with 329 million tons of food grains but when we reach 2047, the food grain availability would be a big challenge unless we grow at 4% rate, The productivity level has to increase,” he emphasized.

Mr.Trilochan underlined that unless our productivity increases and we reduce the cost of cultivation and the input cost, we won’t be globally competitive.

“When you want India to be about $ 30 trillion economy by 2047, we should be able to produce enough to feed our population, and also to export, unless we are globally competitive, we won’t be able to export to global market, or capture it,” he opined.

He also highlighted that the Government of India has put lot of efforts to address the climate change issues and making agriculture sustainable.

In the recent times and also in the past, more than 2500 varieties of various crops have been developed by ICAR, agricultural universites and private organisation coming together via All-India coordinated trial system. Out of this varieties in the past 10 years almost 2000 of them are climate resilient. More than 150 bio fortified crop varieties have been developed, he said.

Governor R.N. Ravi gave away the degree certificates and congratulated the graduates. Earlier, Prof.V.Geethalakshmi welcomed the gathering and highlighted the academic achievements.