Driving Agricultural Innovations through Technology Adoption and Policy reforms
As part of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Annual Business Summit 2025, a Special Plenary Session on "Innovating for Climate Resilient Agriculture" was held on 29th May 2025 at ITC Maurya, New Delhi.
The session brought together experts from policy, industry, and research to deliberate on cutting-edge innovations and sustainable practices for climate-resilient agriculture. Discussions centered on empowering farmers, enhancing productivity, and ensuring environmental stewardship, with a focus on integrating smart technologies, sustainable models, and inclusive strategies. The discussions focused on empowering farmers, improving productivity, and promoting environmental stewardship through smart technologies, sustainable business models, and inclusive strategies.
The session opened with contextual remarks by Mr. S Sivakumar, Chairman, CII National Council on Agriculture and Group Head – Agri & IT Business, ITC Ltd. He highlighted the dual challenge agriculture faces—its vulnerability to extreme weather and its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. Mr. Sivakumar emphasized the need to address both resilience and mitigation, suggesting that agriculture must not only adapt to climate risks but also actively reduce its environmental footprint.
Prof. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog, delivered the special address, underlining the critical role of policy in enabling innovation-led, climate-resilient growth. He outlined five priority areas for policy action:
Correcting distortions in input and output pricing,
Promoting crop cultivation in agro-climatically suitable regions,
Enhancing input-use efficiency,
Increasing crop yields, and
Mainstreaming sustainable agricultural practices to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint.
The panel discussion that followed featured distinguished industry leaders:
Dr. Usha Barwale Zehr, Chairman, CII Task Force on Women in Agriculture and Executive Director, Grow Indigo, stressed the need to scale up the adoption of biologicals and nature-based solutions in Indian agriculture, which currently lags behind global peers.
Mr. Jai Agarwal, Managing Director, C.P. Milk & Food Products Pvt. Ltd., spoke about the relative climate resilience of the dairy sector. He emphasized that farmer education and adoption of best practices could significantly reduce emissions from dairy operations.
Mr. P Ravichandran, Chairman, CII National Committee on Post-Harvest & Logistics and President, Danfoss India, highlighted innovations in cold chain infrastructure, particularly solar-powered solutions and pre-cooling at the farm gate. He also noted the increasing viability of reefer logistics, supported by India’s expanding road network.
Mr. Rohtash Mal, Chairman, EM3 Agriservices Pvt. Ltd., advocated for technology access on a pay-per-use basis, which can enable smallholders to adopt climate-smart practices affordably. He also emphasized the importance of sustainable crop residue management to reduce emissions from traditional farming.
The session offered rich insights and practical recommendations for scaling climate-resilient agriculture. It reinforced the importance of cross-sector collaboration and innovation-led transformation to ensure a sustainable, competitive, and inclusive agricultural future for India.
29 May 2025
New Delhi