Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, called for introduction of innovative farm technologies that could be easily adopted by the farmers and are essential for enhancing farmer's prosperity .

While inaugurating the Krishi Vigyan Mela at Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi the minister said, "Adoption of appropriate and farmer friendly technologies has remained the weakest link in Indian Agriculture and I hope, with organizing Vigyan Melas like this we will be able to address this gap." The minister further said, "The key to success of agriculture lies in transferring the knowledge and technologies developed by the agricultural scientists in their laboratories to the farming communities in their fields."

He further added that due to hard work of our farming community, India's agriculture sector has emerged as a success story. "We have not only achieved self sufficiency in the food grains production, but also emerged as a major player in the international trade. Our export of wheat and rice ensured that the international prices of these commodities remain stable. Last year we exported agriculture commodities worth Rs.1.87 lakh crore," he said.

Expressing his view that the problems of agriculture productivity like water scarcity, small land holdings, erratic monsoon, adverse drought conditions have to be addressed, he said, "The Government of India is doing its best to solve these problems through various programmes and schemes targeted to the agricultural and allied sectors. However, all agricultural research, development and extension organizations must come together to meet these challenges and convert them into opportunities. I see no reason why we cannot overcome these challenges."