THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA: The Group of Technopark Companies (GTech) is gearing up to organize a Conference on IT in Agriculture, based on theme ‘Re-engineering the Kerala Agriculture Sector: Information and Communication Technologies in Agriculture’. The conference will get underway in the Kerala capital on January 22.

Organized in partnership with NABARD, Kerala State IT Mission and Technopark, the conference would aim at examining the several ongoing projects that look to provide IT-based services to specific domains such as Agriculture Marketing, Agriculture Production and Extension Services. According to Binu Shankar, CEO, GTech, the conference would also bring to the fore core issues of the agriculture sector in Kerala and discuss how ICT could be employed in addressing these challenges. “The conference would bring together experts and thought leaders from the Kerala IT industry, senior government officials, representatives from the national development organizations, NGOs, representatives from the Kerala agricultural community and the media,” he said.

The Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management in Kerala (IIITMK) will be the knowledge partner for the conference. The conference would have three sessions dedicated to the use of ICT in Agriculture Marketing, Production and Extensions Services.

While Mullakara Ratnakaran, Minister for Agriculture, would deliver the inaugural address, other speakers would include Ajay Kumar, Principal Secretary - IT, Rajeev Srinivasan, Professor, Corporate Strategy, IIM Bangalore, K C Shashidhar, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Jayadev Urs, University of Mysore, Satichananda Sagola, Global Risk Hub, Annie George, Building and Enabling Disaster Resilience of Coastal Communities, Nagapattinam, A K Sherief, Kerala Agricultural College and Ajith Kumar, IIITMK

S Rama Rao, President of GTech said, “ICT in agriculture is of special significance and plays a vital role in transformations relating to the delivery of services as well as in the marketing of agricultural products and added that GTech would play the role of catalyst in facilitating more such interactions between the technology and the farming community in Kerala”. Satish Babu, Secretary, GTech added that the organisation would work closely with development organisations in Kerala to facilitate the usage of ICT in development sector and said that the conference would showcase successful case studies on innovations in the agriculture sector.