Hyderabad Oct 20: Bio-Agri conference, first of its kind in India will be held at Westin here on October 28 and 29.
Announcing this at a press conference here on Wednesday, BioAgri Input Producers Association (BIPA) President Dr K R K Reddy said the theme of the conference is Bio Innovations for Regenerative Agriculture. 150 plus delegates from National and international are expecting to participate in the two day conference, he said.
The BIPA President said that the 2020 World Food Prize Laureate Dr Rattan Lal among many other keynote speakers will address Bio-Agri-2021. Dr Rattan Lal will address the conference virtually from the USA. The other speakers include Dr Pam Marrone, Chairperson, Marrone Bio Innovations—US, Mr Henri Oosthoek, MD of Koppert Biological Systems, The Netherlands, Dr Agenor Mafra-Neto, Chemical Ecology Researcher and others.
Dr Reddy said,”How to increase productivity, and how to produce quality output are the two important challenges in front of the Agriculture industry today. There is a huge stress on the soil. The soil has lost its fertility. In another 30 years, by the year 2050, the major soils will be dead. By 2050, around 50 per cent of the arable land would be salt-affected.
It will lose total fertility. If that happens, the world will face a food crisis. We may encounter a famine situation.

The world will find it difficult to feed the population. We need to wake up to this catastrophe. Hence this is a historical conference”, he added.

Quoting UN officials, Dr Reddy said only 60 years of farming is left if soil degradation continues.
Generating three centimetres of topsoil takes 1,000 years, and if current rates of degradation continue all of the world’s topsoil could be gone within 60 years.
BIPA Executive Committee Member Raj Agarwal said the two day Bio Agri 2021 conference will focus on the innovations, services, and delivery systems to use and implement to bring back life to the soils, biodiversity restoration which will lead to regenerative and sustainable agriculture.

BIPA Vice President Dr John Peter said one-third of usable land globally is consumed by agriculture. It is perceived generally that industries are producing a lot of pollution.

But, 15 % of greenhouse gases are produced because of agricultural practices and unconventional uses of chemicals. The current agri products have social and environmental impacts. We must reduce using chemicals, he said.
The conference will focus upon Biological Crop Nutrition – Current Status and Way Forward, Biological Crop Protection – Emerging Trends, Predators, Parasites and Pollinators for better Crop Protection, Pheromones / Semi chemicals for innovative Crop Protection and Regulatory, Industry-Academia Interface and BioAg business opportunities.
BIPA Joint Secretary Dr Sudha Reddy, treasurers Ch V. Srinivas and Ravi Kumar also spoke on the occasion.