ITC Chairman: Agriculture''s Vertical Growth Potential & Food Security

New Delhi, Dec 11 (PTI) There is a 'serious concern' over food and nutrition security across the world, and it is among the factors that are making food inflation 'sticky', ITC Chairman & Managing Director Sanjiv Puri said on Wednesday.

The agriculture sector has a "tremendous opportunity" to grow vertically but there is a need to build resilience with sustainable farming and use technology to provide such solutions.

The sector has to increase productivity and quality, and at the same time it also has to deal with the newer challenges such as climate change, he said here at a CII function here.

"It has to deal with the newer challenge, a very severe challenge that this sector faces, of climate change. It is a sector that is most vulnerable to erratic weather patterns, and all these issues are no more things of the future. They are live and with us today," he said.

More importantly, India has a large number of small and marginal farmers. "How can we work with them? How can we enable them and make them productive, make them future-ready? These are certain areas that I think offer a great opportunity for growth ...," he said.

Puri also said, that while dealing with productivity, there is also a need to think about sustainability, as how the whole practice of farming has to transform such that it's more environmentally friendly, said Puri.

There is a need to harness new-age digital technologies to provide innovative and comprehensive solutions to farmers, and purposeful government support over the years for startups has enabled tremendous progress in this.

"No doubt progress has been made, but we still have challenges. And more importantly, I think it's important to recognise the quantum of opportunity that is available now," he said.

There are various estimates on how much world food production needs to increase by 2050, and this has to be done at a time when natural resources are depleting.

"There lies a big opportunity and given the potential that India can grow vertically from about 2 to 3 per cent of global trade. That is an, indeed, tremendous opportunity. There is a growing requirement for traceability, sustainable farming, etc," he said.