Smart, sustainable and profitable agriculture will be the foundation of ‘Viksit Bharat@2047’, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Chouhan said on Monday at the inauguration of the three-day International Agronomy Congress (IAC-2025).
“Agriculture must move toward producing more with fewer resources while conserving more for future generations. Agronomy is the bridge that connects scientific research with the farmer’s field,” he said, emphasizing on optimizing soil health, water-use efficiency, biodiversity, eco-nutrition, and digital agriculture.
He also announced that the recommendations emerging from the Congress will be incorporated into national policies and regional action plans.
Minister of State Bhagirath Choudhary added that “agronomy must become the solution to the real problems of farmers.”
The Congress has been organised by the Indian Society of Agronomy (ISA) in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), and the Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS).
More than 1,000 scientists, policymakers, students, development partners, and industry experts from India and abroad are participating in the Congress.
Scientists from several international organizations- including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) are also there at the event.
The IAC–2025 declaration features recommendations like promotion of soil-carbon sequestration and water-efficient farming; scaling up AI-based digital agriculture solutions and the Agri-Stack framework; mainstreaming natural and regenerative agriculture models; targeted innovation programmes for youth and women farmers; next-generation agronomy education at school and university levels; among others.