Plenary 3 on Day 3 (November 8, 2025) of the International Conference on Agrarian Change was chaired by R. Ramakumar (Professor, School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai). It featured R. Ramakumar also as a speaker, along with, Ademola A. Adenle (Senior Special Adviser on Agricultural Innovation, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Nigeria), Kathleen Hefferon (Former Director, National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR), India), K. C. Bansal (Former Director, National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR), India), Stanford Blade (Deputy Director General, Research and Innovation, ICRISAT, Hyderabad) and T. Jayaraman (Senior Fellow, Climate Change, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF))

The session discussed debates on science and technology in agriculture, Africa’s food system challenges, molecular farming, CRISPR and transgenic technologies, and emerging trends in crop science.