North Gujarat is arid. It has seven districts which include the Kutch (Rann) Desert. About 15 years ago, Banaskantha, a district in the region used to make news for its poverty and regular famines. Today, Unjha, a farming city in North Gujarat is the spice capital of the World and the region has recorded the highest yields of potato ever of more than 80 tonnes per hectare. This potato production is linked to a modern agri-food chain that processes it for several major International and National food companies in India. About 80 per cent of the castor produced in India comes from this region.

 

Dr. Ashok Patel, a renowned agricultural extensionist, a leader in the use of ICTs in agriculture in India and also Vice-Chancellor of the Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, invited Ajit Maru, Senior Officer of GFAR Secretariat, to discuss trends and directions in agricultural research and innovation with his University’s faculty. The University, one of the four in Gujarat with a fifth for Veterinary, Animal and Fishery Sciences under development, is concerned about how to sustain 10 per annual growth in Gujarat that the state has achieved for over a decade. The University has researched and developed technologies for integrated farming in the region. It has supported and contributed to the improved cultivation of traditional crops such as cumin, castor and cotton and new crops such as date palm, pomegranate and papaya by farmers. It is a center to preserve the rich agricultural, livestock and forest biodiversity of the region. The University maintains and improves herd of Kankrej cattle, Bani buffaloes and a flock of Patanwadi sheep that are threatened varieties of livestock. The University now experiments with growing olives in the region and has an extensive program on the control of Bluetongue disease that now afflicts not only sheep but also goats and camels.

 

Upon learning of the Global Foresight Hub and GFAR’s activities in forward thinking agriculture in a presentation made by Dr Ajit Maru for the University faculty, Dr. Ashok Patel has requested GFAR’s facilitation for establishing forward thinking capacities in his University and in developing a roadmap based on forward thinking to sustain Western India’s remarkable growth in agriculture.