MoU signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and Microsoft

MoU signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and Microsoft

Part of: GS Prelims and GS -II – Policies and interventions 

In news

• Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft to run a pilot programme for 100 villages in 6 states.
• The MoU requires Microsoft to create a ‘Unified Farmer Service Interface’ through its cloud computing services.
  • It involves creating ‘AgriStack’ on which everything else will be built.

About AgriStack

• It is a collection of technologies and digital databases that focuses on farmers and the agricultural sector.
• AgriStack will create a unified platform for farmers to provide them end to end services across the agriculture food value chain.
• It is in line with the Centre’s Digital India programme, aimed at providing a broader push to digitise data in India, from land titles to medical records.
• Each farmer will have a unique digital identification (farmers’ ID) that contains personal details, 
  • Each ID will be linked to the individual’s digital national ID Aadhaar.

Need of the MoU

• At present, the majority of farmers across India are small and marginal farmers with limited access to advanced technologies or formal credit that can help improve output and fetch better prices.

Benefits

• Problems such as inadequate access to credit and information, pest infestation, crop wastage, can be addressed by use of digital technology.
• It will increase innovation and investment towards the agricultural sector