Agriculture should be connected to technology digital agriculture mission

NEW DELHI, 23 April 2022: Digital Agriculture Mission is yet to be finalized. However, following activities/initiatives are being taken under Digital Agriculture:

The Department has constituted a High Level Task Force, which is in the process of finalizing “India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA) report. Task Force invited comments from subject experts, farmers, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and general public and considered them.

Based on this, the Department is in the process of finalizing a framework for creating Agristack in the country, which will serve as a foundation to build innovative agri-focused solutions leveraging digital technologies to contribute effectively towards increasing the income of farmers and improve efficiency of the Agriculture sector in the country.

Once finalized, this can serve as a foundation to build innovative agri-focused solutions leveraging technologies to contribute effectively towards increasing the income of farmers and improve farm efficiency/efficiency of the Agriculture sector in the country.

In this regard, leading Technology/Agri-tech/Start-Ups companies were identified and invited to collaborate with the Government of India and develop Proof of Concepts (PoC) based on data of select Districts/ Villages. A public call through the Department’s website was issued inviting proposals for Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Companies were invited to sign MoU on purely pro bono basis and develop the PoCs.

These PoCs will help in understanding the uses of Agristack and service & solutions that can be built using available data and some of them, if found beneficial to the farmers will be scaled up at National level. In this regard, the Government has signed MoU with leading Technology/Agri-tech Players & Start-ups for working on Proof of Concepts (PoCs) in the select Districts/Villages.

Under National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture guideline, funds are released to the States/Union Territories for the projects involving use of modern information technologies such as such as Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Block Chain Technology, Internet of Things, Robotics etc., and for customization/shifting of web & mobile applications already developed by the States, to the platform to be developed using digital technologies.

Various mobile applications including KisanSuvidha have also been developed to facilitate dissemination of information to farmers on the critical parameters viz., Weather, Market Prices, Plant Protection, Agro-advisory, Extreme Weather Alerts, Input Dealers ( of Seed, Pesticide, Fertilizer, Farm Machinery), Soil Health Card, Cold      Storage & Godowns, Soil Testing Laboratories and Veterinary Centre & Diagnostic labs, Crop Insurance Premium Calculator and the Government schemes.
 

This information was given by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar in a written reply in Lok Sabha recently.