Overview
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the plenary address to about 2,000 farmers, policymakers and industry figures at the India Today Group's Kisan Tak conference on Thursday, Nov. 12, using the platform to set a national agricultural agenda.
- He prioritized a technology-led transformation that names drones, artificial intelligence, precision farming, scientific soil testing and solar-powered equipment as tools to cut costs and raise yields.
- Modi called for faster value addition by expanding Farmer Producer Organisations, boosting food processing and linking smallholders to export markets to convert farmers into agripreneurs.
- The prime minister cited performance figures — average farm growth above 4% in the past decade, roughly 50 crore people lifted out of poverty, and agricultural exports over Rs 4 lakh crore — while some specific programme numbers, such as the count of solar pumps under PM-KUSUM, have been reported as disputed and need independent verification.
- The India Today event served as a national broadcast forum to marshal science, industry and policy support for these priorities and could change farmers’ incomes if adoption, equipment supply and market access scale as planned.