New Delhi: HarvestPlus received the ‘Sustainable Agriculture Awards’ 2022 from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) on Wednesday, November 30, 2022 in New Delhi. This is the 2nd edition of the awards and HarvestPlus received this award under the “Innovative Technology/Services Promoting Sustainable Agriculture” category.
The award was received by Ravinder Grover, Program Lead, HarvestPlus from Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India; Samuel Praveen Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and several other dignitaries from the agricultural value chain sector. The list of awardees included global FMCG giants like Coca-Cola, Yes Bank, ITC and Nestle, among others.
Speaking at the occasion, Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said, “Today educated youth are getting attracted towards the agriculture sector and the government is continuously encouraging them through various schemes and programmes to join the sector.”
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“Food security and consistency in agriculture always go hand in hand for the development of any nation. We cannot achieve food security unless sustainable agricultural practices are adopted,” the minister added.
Speaking on being a recipient of this honour, Ravinder Grover said, “Sustainable agriculture is indeed a challenge and naturally nutritious foods can lead India from food security to nutrition security. It is truly an honour to win at the FICCI Sustainable Agriculture Summit & Awards. We are thankful to FICCI and the jury for selecting us for the honour. The honour and recognition will motivate us to work for setting even higher standards in this sector and we are immensely grateful to all our farmers, partners and donors for their trust and commitment to making the food system naturally nutritious and sustainable.”
The objective of these awards was to recognise and showcase programmes that promote sustainable agricultural development and those that focus on improving farmers’ income. The contest ensured the exchange of knowledge, best practices, and innovative solutions for the development of sustainable agricultural practices and enhancing farmers’ income.
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Speaking at the occasion, Samuel Praveen Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said that as a community, we must focus on use, reuse, and repurpose all the resources because we have to include this and adopt the circular economy approach. We also need to work with educational institutions and schools to ensure sustainability becomes a part of the curriculum for future generations, he added.
Highlighting the importance of the private sector in achieving sustainable agriculture, Niranjan Banodkar, Chief Financial Officer and Head of Sustainability, YES Bank said, “While the Indian government is championing the cause of sustainable agricultural development, there is a need for unprecedented efforts from the private sector to complement these efforts. It is critical for business leaders to review their product portfolio and business processes from the prism of sustainability and implement specific interventions that improve the economic viability of farms, promote efficient use of natural resources, combat climate change and popularise sustainable consumption.”
