National workshop on market intelligence and digital innovations opens in Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala government initiatives aim to boost farmers' income by 50%, focusing on food security, sustainability, value addition, and digitalization.

The Kerala government has introduced several initiatives aimed at increasing farmers’ income by 50%, Minister for Agriculture P. Prasad has said.

Mr. Prasad was speaking after inaugurating a two-day national workshop on market intelligence and digital innovations organised by the State Agricultural Prices Board here on Thursday. Mr. Prasad went on to add that in the agricultural sector, the State government was focussing primarily on four areas — guaranteeing food security and nutrition, climate-smart and sustainable agriculture, strengthening the value addition network, and digitalisation in agriculture.

Various activities had been undertaken in the past three years towards these targets, the Minister said. The Agriculture department had secured clearance for the World Bank-assisted Kerala Climate Resilient Agri-Value Chain Modernisation (KERA) Project. The ₹2,400 crore KERA project would be implemented in the State over the next five years, he added.

The State Agricultural Prices Board organised the workshop to explore and discuss new national and international trends and concepts that can be practically incorporated into the State’s farm sector.

State Agricultural Prices Board chairman P. Rajasekharan, Tamil Agriculture University extension head K.R. Ashok, Principal Scientist at the ICAR-National Institute for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research Raka Saxena; Dean, International Agribusiness Management Institute, Gujarat, R.S. Pundir; and Nalin Rawal of Agriwatch were present. The workshop will conclude on Friday.