Dr. Pramod Katti, Professor of Agricultural Entomology presently working as Administrative Officer in the University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, Karnataka. He has completed his B.Sc. (Agri) with distinction and M.Sc.(Agti) in Agricultural Entomology with three Gold Medal from UAS, Bengaluru, Karnataka. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from UAS, Dharwad with 96.40% marks (9.64 / 10.00 OGPA) with research work on Sunflower thrips and their relation in spread of necrosis virus. He worked for 15 years as Scientist(Entomology) in AICRP (Sunflower) at MARS, Raichur and responsible for release of 17 technologies which have gone to Package of Practices and to the farmers adoption. He handled 15 different projects as PI and Co-PI.

He has more than 50 research papers in scientific journals. He has 23 years of experience in Teaching, Research, Extension, Publication and Administration. He guided 11 M.Sc. and 3 Ph.D. (ongoing) who have worked on various aspects of insect pest management. His major contribution as Extension Scientist is introduction of ‘Drill Sown Rice(DSR)’ in the command area of Raichur district in association with line departments during 2011 and later. The technology has spread to more than 80000 ha. now in the area. As Editor of the Publication Centre of the University since November, 2013 and introduced a quarterly magazine in Kannada called “Krishi Pradeepike” which is having more than 2500 subscribers as on date.

He is a recipient of ‘Life Time Achievement Award’ from International Association for Research and Development Organization (IARDO) in a International Award Conference on Multidisciplinary Research and Latest Innovations held at Internal Centre, Goa on 28th October, 2018, ‘National Education Excellence Award’ in a conference held at Indian Society of International Law, New Delhi conducted by Economic Growth Society of India on 4th April, 2019 and outstanding contribution to Science-2019 award from Dr.B.V.David foundation at Chennai on 17th November,2019.

Edward Kosior ( FSPE, FIOMMM, FRSA) has been active as an innovator in polymer technology for the past 35 years both within universities and recycling enterprises. He is an Honorary Professor at Brunel University UK and Fellow of The Society of Plastics Engineers; The Institute of Materials, Metal and Mining; Royal society of the Arts. He recently received the Prince Philip Medal for "Polymers in the service of man"

His specialisations are advanced recycling plastics technologies including food grade from post consumer plastics such as PET, HDPE and PP, mixed plastics recycling, minimizing carbon footprint of packaging; bioplastics packaging; reducing plastics in the oceans, and waste plastics to fuel technology.

An Agro Industry professional with vast experience in Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Strategic Planning and Corporate Management in wide ranging agro related industries like Agrochemicals, Micro Irrigation, Agricultural Engines & Pumpsets, Tractor & Agricultural Machineries in leading agri business companies like John Deere, Netafim, Jain Irrigation, Voltas & Kirloskar etc

An IIT (Agricultural Engg.) and IIMA (Agri. Business Management) graduate having keen interest in Rural Marketing, Agri Business Strategies, and innovation in Agri Technologies etc.

Currently, CEO of Driptech India - a start-up company in the Jain Irrigation group dealing in new innovative highly cost effective drip irrigation technology.

Mr. Prashant Mandke has experience of over 30 years of working with some of the best corporates and has held senior management positions, managed large multifunctional teams, and managed P & L He is founder of SOCIOLENS, which focuses on social impact and offers a range of services to Foundations, NGOs, Social Enterprises / Innovators / startups, Advertising & Promotion Agencies. He is an engineering graduate and has done his Management Development Program from IIM Ahmedabad.

He has extensive field experience of Indian Rural Ecosystem and understanding of the socio cultural dynamics. Prashant has privileged of working on USAID program “securing water for food” to supports innovators who focus on agriculture and water, across the world.

He has worked on capacity building of FPO (farmer producer organizations) and also developed innovative marketing campaigns for some of the leading agriculture input companies. He has been a speaker @ leading industry forums and is Guest Faculty @ Management Institutes

His overall professional career has spanned about two and half decades in spearheading agri-enterprise business operations, manufacturing, marketing & sales, branding and project management works. Mr Ojha started as a Trainee Chemical Engineer at Searle India Ltd in 1994 and left active employment as CEO of Neem India (RJ Group) at the age of 42, to start with his proprietary initiative in 2012.

His formative years in the professional world were at NDDB promoted and owned Institutions like NTGCF, FES & Mother Dairy, where he worked closely with small & marginal farmers including village institutions, understanding their issues first hand for developing products and services which would be instrumental in providing better livelihoods. While still in his initial days, and during an interaction with Dr Kurien, NDDB Chairman then, he said “when the farmer is happy, everyone else will also be happy”. This was an inspirational takeaway from this legend.

KC Associates Advisory, founded in October 2012, works around the ethos of providing services to institutions working with or for the farming community. The Advisory shapes business strategies, brand positioning, business development & marketing, operational stability, HR & OD interventions with the unique concept of Happiness@work for happy companies, happy people. The Advisory partners with companies, institutions, farmer organisations involved in organic and sustainable agriculture, biological origin agri-input products, nutrition sensitive agriculture, SDGs, and climate resilient agriculture.

Promoting an organic lifestyle is a passion, while cooking satvik food helps unwind after work.

Dr. Amitava Basu is Professor, F/Ag, BCKV, W.B, India. He is author of 3 books and 65+ research papers published in the reputed National and International journals. He has expertise in the field of mycology, epidemiology, plant disease management, ecology, sustainable agriculture, host parasitic interaction, diagnostics of plant diseases and nanotechnology. He has attended 15 strong national symposium and 8 International symposium(Latin American Potato Congress, 2008, Argentina), France(at Canopy Architecture symposium, INRA, 2012), Kathmandu, Nepal (Climate Change and Livelihood, 2010), Bangkok, Thailand (Go-Organic symposium, 2009).

He attended SAFE-2014 at Bali, Indonesia and chaired the crop protection session in symposium organized by OMICS, Hyderabad; He attended “2015 International Training Workshop on Seed Potatoes Multiplication and Diseases Integrated Control Techniques” at VSRI, HAAS, Harbin, China, 2015 as an expert. He attended SAFE-2016 as Invited Keynote speaker at Colombo and to chair a session at International conference on Sustainable Agriculture for food and energy SAFE 2018 at Manila Philippines. He guided 10 Ph. D and 12 M.Sc students. He is Fellow of ISMPP, Udaipur, Rajasthan and SPPS, IARI, PUSA, New Delhi.

He is external examiner of Viswa Bharati University, Santiniketan, W.B, TNAU, Madurai & Coimbatore, OUAT, Bhubaneswar and UBKV, Coochbehar, AAU, Jorhat. Ph.D External Examiner for TNAU, OUAT, AAU, UBKV, VISWA BHARATI, Expert member of ASRB, ICAR, New Delhi He has professional membership in ISMPP, SPPS, IPA and IMS. He was Vice President of ISMPP Udaipur, Rajasthan and organized an East zone meet cum National Seminar in collaboration with ISMPP at BCKV on 24th-25th Nov, 2016. He also serves as Technical Editor in Asian Journal of Agriculture Sciences, Maxwell Scientific Organization, Reviewer/Referee in Pesticide Research Journal, IARI, New Delhi-110 012, Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture, UAE, in IJAS, ICAR, Krishi Bhavan, Pusa. Presently, He is PI of a Research project "Current Status of Bacterial Wilt and Detection of R. solanacearum Free Areas Under Potato Growing Districts to facilitate Export From West Bengal" funded by Govt. of W.B. He is also PI of NGO projects funded by Bayer, FMC, Du Pont, Rallis, Parijat Chemical, HPM Chemicals, Excel crop care, Corteva Agrosciences, GSP Crop Sciences etc.

He has been working as Designated Inspection authority of Post Entry Quarantine in West Bengal state since 2017 under Regional Plant Quarantine Station, Salt Lake, Kolkata, West Bengal. His abstract was accepted for Invited Lecture in the session of “International Trade and bio security ”.in the IPS International Conference on Phytopathology in Achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals 2020 at IARI, PUSA, New Delhi.

A senior Professional leader ,Agriculture Graduate and an IIMC alumni with exposure of heading strategic business unit, having 22 years of global experience in business development, marketing, brand management, registration, product development and product launch, providing value through operational excellence and enhanced top-line & bottom-line profitability. Exposure of augmenting business in Agro-Chemical, Seeds , Biotechnology & Biological industry across India as well as Asia Pacific market. Adept at mentoring cross-functional teams and building robust distribution network. Worked in various organizations like Syngenta ,Monsanto Chemtura ,Agrinos and AlgaEnergy

Specialties: Strategic planning,Business Development,Profit Center Operation,Team management,Sales Distribution and Channel Management

Dr. Atul Kumar is presently working as Professor (Plant Physiology) and Head, Department of Plant Physiology at College of Basic Sciences and Humanities of GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India. After obtaining his Masters in Plant Physiology (1977) and Ph.D. in Horticulture (1983), Dr. Kumar has been engaged in Teaching and Research in various aspects of Plant Sciences for over 30 years. He has expertise in the area of Plant Tissue Culture of important Fruits, Vegetables, Ornamentals, and Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (endangered species). Physiology of Abiotic stress in plants is another area of his interest. He has visited several countries, viz. Israel, China, DPR-Korea, Ethiopia, Australia, Germany, Kenya, Turkey and Japan in connection with participation in conferences, symposia for presentation of his research work and as a Lead Speaker. He received Advanced International Training on Plant Biotechnology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel for two months during 2002. He was also on the assignment of Visiting Professor during 2009 -2011 at Mekelle University, Ethiopia. Dr. Atul Kumar has been honored with “Bharat Jyoti Award” and “Rashtriya Sanman Award” during 2006 and 2007, respectively, by India International Friendship Society. Presently, he is a member of Board of Studies of different universities and a Reviewer for different National and International journals. He has authored four Text-cum-Reference Books on Plant Tissue Culture and has over 80 publications of different categories to his credit.

Suhas P. Wani, Former Director, Research Program Asia and ICRISAT Development Centre, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), India. He is Gold Medallist in Ph.D., has received Gold Medal from Govt. of Vietnam, and recognition from YAAS, China, GoI, ABP Mazha, ICAR, ICRISAT, Asian CSR Leadership Award, 50 Most Impactful Leaders in Water & Water Management. He has served on Unilever's SAAB, serving as Jury for JSW-Times of India Earth Care Award. He has published 600 research papers, book chapters and spearheaded strategy papers for the PMO covering PMKSY, DBT, DA, etc.

Mr. S.J.Lakshman graduated with Master in Agriculture with specialization in Plant Breeding & Genetics in 1993 from the renowned Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore . He is a gold medalist in the BSc (Agriculture) program of the University and also recipient of the Chancellors and D.TSS Rajan best student medals. He pursued his Master’s program with the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial fund fellowship.
With his penchant for a challenging job and career, he joined the private industry .His career commenced with his association at M/s Birla seeds , Hosur as a millet breeder for a short span of time and later moved on to Papain industry as Head of raw material development and supply besides serving in various capacities in diverse agro-industries of Horticulture, Organic cultivation and Plant Tissue culture sectors. He joined the sugar industry in 1999 with Ms. Rajshree Sugars & Chemicals Ltd as Scientist (Organic Agriculture) which was the major first stint in endearing Sustainability and later on went on to become the General Manager and Head of Sugarcane Research and Extension services. He joined M/s EID Parry (I) Ltd in 2017 and is serving to date as its Assoc. Vice president & Head of R&D and Extension services.
He pioneered promotion of many novel products, process, schemes and programs in sugarcane agriculture and is acknowledged by peers in the sugar industry as a trendsetter in terms of farmer agri services. He was instrumental in establishment of state of the art agriculture R&D facilities and extension departments for sustaining the challenging sugar business with the core purpose “to enrich life by creating value from agriculture” and is today a promionent figure in EID Parry (I) Ltd of the renowned Murugappa group in the industry.

He sustainability contribution in R&D encompasses development of Plant Tissue culture protocols for many sugarcane varieties, novel and low cost sugarcane hybridisation techniques, development of super early duration sugarcane varieties (Co 11015 and PI 1110) that can be harvested in 8-9 months, seedling method sugarcane propagation way back in 2004, new eco sustainable products like Tetrastychus bio-agents, insect pheromone technology for borer pests and Entomo-pathogenic nematode formulations . He was the first to develop a soil moisture indicator and IT integrated irrigation scheduling system that informs farmers on need for irrigation thereby entailing 35% savings in water use and maturity based harvest scheduling. Instrumental in developing many bioproducts for sugarcane derived from by products which fostered the sugar company to set up a separate bioproducts company in lieu of its business success.

In the field of farmer extension services, he was the first to introduce an “OLA/ UBER” aggregator model of mechanized farm services , thereby rendering mechanised solutions to marginal farmers right at his field with ease on the click of a button through an IOT app in 2017. An IT platform enabled dynamic module “Farmer connect app” has been introduced by him and is the only sugar company to have introduce such an IOT interface in the country. He was instrumental in conceptualising and developing the “Mobile Village Theatre” training module for the first time in the country and is in operation.

Prof. Sunil Pabbi, Principal Scientist and Incharge, CCUBGA, Division of Microbiology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, has a professional research and teaching experience of more than 33 years and his major research contributions are in the field of microbiology/algology. He has carried out pioneering work in the area of Blue Green Algae (BGA) biofertilizer and developed commercially viable protocol for BGA biofertilizer production which is used at IARI and also licensed to number of private entrepreneurs. His efforts in popularizing BGA biofertilizer among researchers and farmers are well recognized. His work on cyanobacterial phycobiliprotein pigments is very significant leading to development of an economical process for obtaining high purity phycocyanin from cyanobacteria having application in food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and analytical industry. Dr. Pabbi has so far carried out 18 research projects including Indo Denmark collaboration project funded by agencies like DBT, ICAR, DST etc. He has over 110 publications and 7 books. He is recipient of Prof. Y S R K Sarma Memorial Award 2013, Distinguished Scientist Award 2019 by Society for Plant Research and Prof. S R Vyas Memorial Award 2018 of Association of Microbiologists of India (AMI). He has guided several M.Sc. and Ph.D. students and was awarded Best Teacher Award of ICAR- IARI. He is member, Board of Studies of number of universities and member of the Specialized Products Sectional Committee of Bureau of Indian Standards, Govt. of India.

Obtained B.Tech (Agricultural Engineering) and M.Tech (Soil & Water Engineering) from Kerala Agricultural University during 1990 and 1993 respectively. Awarded with Ph.D (Soil & Water Engineering) by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in 2009 and PG Diploma in Agricultural Extension Management (PGDAEM) by MANAGE, Hyderabad in 2012. Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India) – FIE. Presently working as Professor (Soil and Water Conservation Engineering) at College of Agriculture, Padannakkad (Kerala Agricultural University). Earlier worked as Professor & Head, Department of Soil and Water Conservation Engineering and Principal Investigator, Precision Farming Development Centre (PFDC), an externally aided project funded by Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India at Kelappaji College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tavanur for 5 years.

Was also holding the full additional charge of Professor & Head, Agricultural Research Station, Anakkayam for 3 years. Completed 25 years of teaching, research and extension experience. Serves as the peer reviewer of the International National Journal, Water and Environment Research and guided seven M.Tech and one Ph.D thesis. Serving as the external member of Board of Studies of Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and as external examiner of Ph.D and M.Tech thesis evaluation of many Agricultural Universities.

Served as the technical expert member of various committees constituted by Government of Kerala and Government of India in the field of Micro Irrigation, Precision Farming, Protected Cultivation and Soil and Water Conservation. Received many awards and attended number of seminars / workshops and delivered keynote addresses and invited lectures. Published 2 books, 35 research papers in various National and International Journals and number of booklets and popular articles in the field of micro-irrigation and precision farming. Organized number National and State level seminars and workshops. During past 5 years, has organised more than 100 training programmes at different parts of the State on various aspects of Precision Farming for the Officers / Field staff of Agriculture Department and farmers.

Raghuram Lanka is currently an AVP at Reliance Jio within the AI CoE where he has been leading AI/ ML innovations in Agriculture and Healthcare. Prior to joining Jio, Raghu was a Principal Program Manager in Microsoft, and led the Farmbeats program, bringing AI solutions into agriculture in order to increase the yield and net income of farmers across the world.

He is the ex-Co-Founder & CTO of Topycs, an AI platform that analyses big data from many sources for assisting doctors in personalized treatments, pharma companies for real world evidence and unmet symptom needs. Raghu earned his MS in Computer Sciences from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and Gold medalist in the CBA program from ISB, Hyderabad

Sachin Nikumbh did his Mechanical Engineering and MBA from Pune University and ePDM from IIM Bangalore. He has worked with GoAir, Motorola and Tata Group (various roles with Tata Motors, Tata Communications and Tata Projects). He founded Krishi Trade, a bootstrapped agricutural trading platform in 2017 supported by grant from Yunus Social Business (of Noble Laureatte Prof Dr M Yunus), MAN Volkswagen which received awards at Paris, Turkey and also by Govt of Maharashtra. Krishi Aadhaar, a module in Krishi Trade, works on forecasting of agri produce. Farmers who register here also have option to join Krishi Trade FPC (which now owns 3 processing facilities) or explore selling his produce to domestic or international market directly to end buyer by using Krishi Trade platform.

Krishi Trade offers 100% payment to farmer or FPC on spot, it does sorting, grading, packaging, transport, shipping to end buyer. TQ CERT, a 100% subsidiary of Tata Projects Ltd does quality inspection & certification and PayTM which is also associated, pitch in with PO based funding to buyers and offers pre-shipment trade finance. The idea is to leverage technology, expand market linkages, and organize trade to improve efficiencies in agri value chain and improve income of farmers.

This is offered under the brand "PayTM Krishi Trade" which has started cloacking double digit in crore monthly turnover. Agri-Fin-Tech, which Krishi Trade champions with, has tremendous potential in market opportunities based on structuring (and mitigating) risks in agri trade and improving value chain efficiencies by leveraging technology.