Table of Contents
Digitalisation of Agricultural Sector: Relevance
- GS: e-technology in the aid of farmers.
Digitalisation of Agricultural Sector: Context
- Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in a written reply has informed the House about the various initiatives/steps to enable digitalisation of agricultural sector in the country and to promote agri-tech business.
Digitalisation of Agricultural Sector: Government steps
- Government has finalized an India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA) framework which would lay down the architecture for the federated farmers’ database.
- 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.
- 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.
- Government of India has launched National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Scheme with the objective of creating online transparent competitive bidding system to facilitate farmers with remunerative prices for their produce. Also, 1000 mandis of 18 States and 3 UTs have been integrated with e-NAM platform till now.
- 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.
- 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.
- Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal (ICAR-CIAE) under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed Krishi Yantra App to augment research, operations and technology dissemination process in the field of agricultural engineering.
- Besides, ICAR-CIAE has also developed the following Mobile Apps:
- ‘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.
- ‘Farm Safety’: Provides information about Safety Guidelines and Safety Gadgets to avoid accidents while using different type of agricultural machinery.
- 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.
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