Vice Chancellors of Agricultural Universities in Maharashtra agree that it is the time for- ‘Harness and Harvest’

All the Vice Chancellors of 5 Major Agriculture universities in Maharashtra came together and decided to take up the goal of sustainability in farming. This was the first in a series of engagement with agriculture colleges to take the conversation forward on climate resilient agriculture and sustainability. Today thousands of farmers of India face climate related losses. Climate change's impact on agriculture is reported to have a 1.5 per cent loss in India's GDP apart from the loss of human life, food insecurity and low productivity.

Dr Shende, visionary of Smart Campus Cloud Network gave a clarion call to the VCs that there are plenty of opportunities where Agricultural universities could play an important part in making the civic societies aware about the ideas of sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. Afterall, the motto of the SDGs is to 'leave no one behind'.

The Vice chancellors envisioned that the future of agriculture is hinged on solar infrastructure as a modern innovative tool for farming which could make farming a water and energy efficient practice in the country. The session further saw a discussion on the utilization of IOTs (Internet of Things) and smart technologies such as Smart Sense for monitoring energy usage in the campuses and on the field as well.

Dr Ashok Dhawan, a giant in the field of Agriculture Education claimed harness and harvest should be the motto for agriculture today and for this new association between SCCN and the colleges. All the Vice Chancellors were very excited and hopeful of a fruitful association between the Agricultural colleges and with the Smart Campus Cloud Network.

The session was chaired by Dr Rajendra Shende, Chairman of Terre Policy Centre, Pune and Mr Ashok Methil, professor of Agribusiness at MIT World Peace University. It was with this pressing need to transform agriculture with sustainable practices that Dr Shende presented the Smart Campus Cloud Network to the Vice Chancellors of the following universities- Dr Ashok Dhawan from Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani; Dr Sanjay D Sawant, Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli Dist, Ratnagiri; Dr V.M. Bhale, Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola; Dr K.P Vishwanatha from Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Ahmednagar. 

Note for editors:

TERRE Policy Centre is a non-profit, non-partisan and independent organization dedicated to sustainable solutions to our developmental imperatives. TERRE also is the abbreviation for 'Technology, Education, Research and Rehabilitation for the Environment.' TERRE strives to reach all strata of society, articularly the young generation and people at the bottom of the pyramid with capacity building tools on energy and food security. Its motto is: "To think is good but to act is better". ( https://terrepolicycentre.com )

SCCN (Smart Campus Cloud Network) facilitates colleges and universities to mainstream the future policy-makers and policy-implementers in implementing the SDGs by promoting sharing of the information on transformative actions undertaken by students and faculties in the campus. More importantly, it encourages to deploy the digital technologies like IoT (Internet of Thing), AI (Artificial Intelligence), Cloud-networking, Machine-to-machine learning and Block chain for optimum use of energy, water in campus and catalyse effective waste management, sustainable transport, air pollution and nature conservation within the campus. (www.sccnhub.com)