Telangana and Jharkhand Governor CP Radhakrishnan said that India has ample opportunities to grow to a GDP of 30 trillion US dollars by 2047, and this will be possible through Viksit Bharat, in which the youth should play a leading role. He inaugurated the third convocation of Sri Konda Laxman Telangana  Horticultural University held on June 11 at Mulugu, Siddipet district.
On this occasion, the Governor, CP Radhakrishnan said that the Union government  providing more support to natural and organic agriculture for further growth in the context of more than 18% of India’s gross domestic product. He expressed hope that the importance of horticulture and forestry sectors will increase along with agriculture. Agriculture is the main source of income for over 70% of the rural population in the country and over 82% are small and marginal farmers.
Dr. Geethalakshmi, Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, said that there is a need to focus on technology-based agriculture in order to achieve sustainable food and nutritional security in the face of diminishing cultivated land, natural resources, crop productivity and climate change, and for India to grow as a super economy.
Precision farming, speed breeding
Attending the convocation ceremony as the chief guest, she said that precision farming, big data, artificial intelligence, Robots, Drones, Remote Sensing should be introduced to the farmers so that the productivity of the crops will increase. She said that in the context of 20 to 30 percent yield loss after harvesting, necessary facilities should be provided for better storage of crop produce.
Sri Konda Laxman Telangana  University, Vice Chancellor Dr. Mrs. B. Neeraja Prabhakar delivered the welcome speech and also presented progress report to the Governor. She said that the  Horticultural university will provide the necessary training to the students to develop them as good horticultural human resources and also provide technical advice to the farmers at the field level.
She said geographical identification of local crops such as Balanagar custard apple, Armuru turmeric and other local crops, registration of farmers’ varieties, research on palm oil, organic cultivation of major horticultural crops and development of new varieties. Dr. Neeraja Prabhakar said that along with the publication of science-based horticultural guide to farmers, new horticultural knowledge is being provided to farmers through village adoption and extension programs.
Giod medals to the students
R. Varalakshmi received three gold medals  for securing the highest OGPA in BSc Honors Horticulture. PCCF Gold Medal in BSc Honors Forestry is given to K. Ravali;  K. Pratyusha received the dean’s gold medal.while,  SKLTSH Gold Medal for scoring highest OGPA in all departments in MSc Horticulture, scoring the highest OGPA among girl students and for being the topper in the vegetable science, M. Malavika bagged three gold medals.
GS Divya in fruit science department and P. Vidya sree in floriculture and landscaping department and P. Maheshwari received a gold medal in the plantation, spices, medicinal and aromatic crops department.
Degrees awarded to students
In this third convocation ceremony, 156 students got a horticulture degree, 50 forest degree, 45 horticulture PG, 30 forest PG, and another six got PhD doctorates.
Varsity registrar Dr. A. Bhagwan, Dean Dr. M. Rajasekhar, Research Director Dr. Kiran, DSA Dr. Vijay, Controller of examinations Dr. Sreenivas, Commissioner of Horticulture, Govt. Of Telangana Ashok Reddy and Board member Dr. RK Mathur, professors and students participated in convocation.