Sri J. Raghotham Reddy Memorial Lecture - 2022 by Dr. AK Singh, Director, IARI – ICAR, New Delhi at University Auditorium, PJTSAU, Rajendranagar on 13-05-2022

Dr. AK Singh, Director, IARI – ICAR, New Delhi was delivered the J. Raghotham Reddy memorial lecture on 13-04-2022 at the University Auditorium, Rajendranagar campus. The bi annual memorial lecture was jointly organized by the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) and the Farm and Rural Science Foundation (FRSF). Telangana State has to be played an important role in achieving the self sufficiency in the oil seed production said the Dr A.K. Singh while delivering the Raghotham Reddy memorial Lecture. Even though India has achieved self sufficiency in many food crops, but in the area of oil seeds and pulses country has spending huge amount of money for importing of edible oils and pulses said Dr. A.K.Singh. He stated, the productivity of food grains has increased by 4.5 times from 522 kg/ha during 1950-51 to 2386 kg/ha during 2020-21. The export of agricultural commodities has increased from USD 38.9 billion during 2017- 18 to USD 50.3 billion during 2021-22. The import of agricultural commodities has also increased from USD 24.9 billion during 2017-18 to USD 32.4 billion during 2021-22. However, with the current trend in population growth, India's population is expected to reach 1.64 billion by 2050. To cater the demand, the food grain production needs to be increased to 333mt by 2050. The challenge of feeding the ever-increasing population with depleting natural resources is gigantic says Dr. A.K.Singh. There is a need to adopt emerging technologies in agricultural sector to overcome future challenges in agricultural sector said Dr. A.K.Singh. Speed Breeding technology, Genome editing, Crop Bio fortification, NRM technologies, Drones, satellite technologies, Regenerative agricultural practices may effectively utilize widely in agricultural sector says the Dr. A.K. Singh. K. Ravinder Rao, Chairman, TS CAB has attended as the Guest of honor and spoke on the occasion. He said that, the farming has to be treated has to be a enterprise rather than traditional farming. Dr. V. Praveen Rao Vice Chancellor PJTSAU has presided the event and spoke on the occasion. Speaking at the program Dr. V. Praveen Rao has made the suggestions that; the plurality of agricultural technology solution has to be taken care for ensuring of the farming is profitable enterprise for the farmers. The PJTSAU and FRSF have been awarded the farmers who had adopted good agricultural practices in organic farming, integrated agriculture, and the water saving technologies. Mr. Anil Kumar. V Epuru, Dr.Yerram Raju of FRSF and several agricultural scientists, faculty members, large number of students, and the formers directors and deans, were attended the event. Dr Sudharani, Director of Extension, PJTSAU has delivered the welcome address and the Dr. Vijyakhader, FRSF has proposed vote of thanks.