The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) and Chennai-based food and agri-tech platform, WayCool Foods, have signed a mutual pact to digitise the Package of Practices (PoP) of important crops under the Crop Production Guide 2020.
The partnership will enable farmers to access information on PoPs for 133 crops through the mobile app of Outgrow, WayCool’s farmer engagement arm.
WayCool said, the collaboration will provide TNAU faculty members as resource people to train farmers and open grounds for them to research organic farming in the Outgrow Agriculture Research Station (OARS).
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WayCool will also extend opportunities to the varsity students to take part in live projects, facilitate internships and placements, organise field visits to the OARS facility, and help in their entrepreneurial journey.
PoP refers to the process of increasing agricultural output by implementing scientific farming methods in place of conventional farming practices.
Geethalakshmi Vellingiri, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University said, the association with WayCool aligns with TNAU’s vision and end objectives to encourage the productivity and profitability of farms while ensuring environmental safety and rural livelihood.
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Sanjay Dasari, Co-founder, WayCool Foods, said, “With an ever-growing population, it has become all the more vital for India to adopt proper agricultural practices that produce high-quality food at a large scale.”
He added that there is a need, now more than ever, to create a robust and standardised package of practices and simultaneously work with farmers for their adoption.