Dr. Devesh Chaturvedi, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare today called upon industry to play a pivotal role in shaping Indian agriculture sector’s vision of 2047 by prioritising green-fuel based mechanisation and reduce the drudgery of women farmers by making gender-neutral farm equipment to reduce workload.
Addressing the 9th International Exhibition & Conference on Agri-Machinery, Equipment & Agri-tech Solutions at EIMA ‘Agrimach India 2025’ organized jointly by FICCI, Italian agriculture industry body FEDERUNACOMA in association with Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Dr Chaturvedi said, “Over the next 5–10 years, we should shift our technologies towards green fuels—whether electrically operated tractors or machines running on CBG (compressed biogas) available for rural CBG plants. This transition will bring down both maintenance and operational costs for farmers. Our schemes will increasingly prioritize green-fuel-based technologies. I would urge our Italian industry counterparts to collaborate in this area.”
Terming women farmers vital for achieving the Vision 2047, the Secretary drew attention of industry towards gender budgeting and exhorted them to focus on production of gender-friendly equipment.
He further stated that the United Nations has declared 2026 as the International Year of Women Farmers. Therefore, equipment must be designed to reduce the drudgery of women. “Often policy makers assume that ‘gender budgeting’ simply means giving ownership of machinery to women but that alone does not reduce drudgery. “Most difficult agricultural tasks are performed by women, and hence we need more gender-friendly equipment, whether manual or motorized, that genuinely reduces their workload,” emphasized Dr Chatuvedi.
Antonio Bartoli, Ambassador of Italy in India hoped to have an agriculture Attache in Italian Embassy in India soon to boost bilateral cooperation in agriculture field between both countries.
“We already have around 20 companies with production facilities here. We want to increase these numbers. Just three days ago, the Prime Ministers of both nations met on the sidelines of the G20 in Rome, where Premier Meloni proposed a new benchmark to reach EUR 20 billion in trade volume by the end of our Joint Strategic Action Plan. We must work towards that,” Ambassador Bartoli said.
T. R. Kesavan, Chairman, Organizing Committee- EIMA Agrimach India & Board Director and Group President, TAFE underlined the need to promote agriculture as services, as farmer will find it unaffordable to buy a seeder which is used just for couple of days. But seeder as an agriculture service can help. So, we need to create a new area of agriculture as a service. Industry has discussed this with the Ministry of Agriculture, and some progress has happened on this front.
Upbeat over future of India-Italy collaboration in agriculture space, Ms. Simona Rapastella, Director General, FEDERUNACOMA said that as per Italian Trade Agency (ICE) report on India, the sector was worth a total of $13.7 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow significantly over the next ten years, reaching $31.6 billion in 2033, with an annual growth rate of about 9%. In this process, Italian and Indian cooperation will play a key role, in terms of Italian production facilities in India and trade & industrial partnership between the two countries. Federunacoma’s export planning forecast expects significant increase in both imports and exports, she added.
FICCI-PwC report ‘Farm Mechanisation: The Path Towards a Future-Ready India’ was released during the event. While highlighting the report Shashi Kant Singh, Partner, PwC advocated a shift from individual ownership to pay-per-use model in order to accelerate adoption of farm mechanisation.
Sabrina Mangialavori, Deputy Trade Commissioner, Italian Trade Agency noted increasing adoption of modern mechanical solutions, such as tillage, sowing, irrigation, crop protection, and threshing by Indian farmers.
Subroto Geed, Co-Chairman, FICCI National Agriculture Committee and President, South Asia, Corteva Agriscience emphasized the urgent need of mechanisation in farm sector in the wake of feeding an estimated worldwide population of 1000 crore by 2050, in which India will be contributing the largest share.
Being organized from 27th to 29th November 2025, the 9th edition of EIMA Agrimach India 2025 at IARI, PUSA, New Delhi, is showcasing the best and the latest agri machineries, besides providing the excellent opportunities to both Indian and overseas player catering to the entire value chain of agriculture sector.
