Digitalisation of Agricultural Sector

Digitalisation of Agricultural Sector

Part of: Prelims and Mains GS – III – Agriculture

Context: Government has taken various initiatives/steps to enable digitalisation of agricultural sector in the country and to promote agri-tech business:

1. Government has finalized an India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA) framework which would lay down the architecture for the federated farmers’ database is being built by taking the publicly available data as existing in various schemes and linking them with the digitized land records. The IDEA would serve as a foundation to build innovative agri-focused solutions leveraging emerging technologies to contribute effectively in creating a better Ecosystem for Agriculture in India. This Ecosystem shall help the Government in effective planning towards increasing the income of farmers in particular and improving the efficiency of the Agriculture sector as a whole. 
2. Under National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture (NeGP-A), funds are released to the State(s)/UT(s) for project involving use of modern technologies viz. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Robotics, Drones, Data Analytics, Block Chain etc.
3. National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Scheme: Creating online transparent competitive bidding system to facilitate farmers with remunerative prices for their produce. 
4. To make provisions of subsidy for farm machinery more transparent Government has developed Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) portal, Centralized Farm Machinery Performance Testing Portal and FARMS Mobile App.
5. A Central Sector Scheme of financing facility under ‘Agriculture Infrastructure Fund’ for investment in digital Connectivity and optic fibre infrastructure is an eligible activity for the projects covered under the scheme. The scheme provides support for creation of post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets.
6. Krishi Yantra App to augment research, operations and technology dissemination process in the field of agricultural engineering. In order to ensure that appropriate mechanization technology is selected by the entrepreneurs, a web-portal has been made available by ICAR-CIAE on their website. This helps prospective and existing entrepreneurs in selection of machines and available choices for procurement.
7. ICAR-CIAE has also developed the following Mobile Apps:

1. ‘Farm mech’ App: The App is related to decision support for selection of suitable farm machineries for five major crops of Tamil Nadu. It also has dynamic Networking of 2250 Custom hiring service operators in Android platform.
2. ‘Farm Safety’: Provides information about Safety Guidelines and Safety Gadgets to avoid accidents while using different type of agricultural machinery.
3. Water Balance Simulation Model for Roof Water Harvesting (Mobile App): It is helpful to decision makers to make recommendations for design requirements where roof water harvesting system adoption may lead to water saving and water security.

 News Source: PIB