Agri Conclave

Millennium Mams’ Agri-Conclave in Mumbai started with two stalwarts of the agrochemical sector: Mr Chetan Shah – MD, Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd. and Mr Sanjiv Lal- MD, Rallis India Ltd.. They gave us in-depth insights on the current Indian agricultural scenario and touched on various topics like impact of China’s blue sky policy on Indian chemical companies, the measures needed to enable the doubling of farmers income by 2022 and the way they are planning to use digital platforms to connect with the farmers.

The second session we had was with two leaders from the seed industry: Mr Rajendra Barwale- Chairman, Mahyco and Mr N. K. Kangliwal – Chairman, Nath Seeds Ltd.. They gave us an informative presentation about the agricultural scenario of India coupled with the workings of the seed industry. Mr Kangliwal shared that the seed business is less of a business and more of a passion and it is an extremely hi-tech, highly research-oriented and capital-intensive industry. It was fascinating to hear the process of the hybrid seeds from Mr Barwale and how the cottonseed farmers have benefited so much after using BT cotton seeds.

The final session of the Agri-Conclave was with Mr Amith Agarwal – Co-Founder- Agribazaar. He took us through his journey of how his company became the largest agricultural warehousing and Agri finance company (Star Agri), thereafter diversifying into the technology business – Agribazaar. It was an eye-opener for us to hear about so many new technological advances in the global agricultural businesses like the use of robotics and drones in farming.