CISCO, Ninjacart, Jio Platforms, ITC, and NCDEX e-Markets signed MoUs with the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India.
Five private companies have signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare – CISCO, Ninjacart, Jio Platforms, ITC and NCDEX e-Markets (NeML) – at Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi Tuesday. The Agriculture Minister, Narendra Singh Tomar, said, “Modernization of the agriculture sector will continue by infusing new technologies so that farmers can increase their income.”
As a result of these pilot projects, farmers will be able to make informed decisions on what crops to grow, what varieties of seeds to use, and what best practices to adopt to maximize yields. Accurate and timely information is essential for those involved in the agriculture supply chain. Farmers can make educated judgments about whether to sell or store their produce and when and where to sell it.
The digital agriculture mission is being planned in 2021-2025 by the government of India to develop projects that are based on the latest technologies, such as artificial intelligence as well as remote sensing, blockchain and GIS technology, including the use of robots and drones. Any effort to revolutionize the agricultural sector must adopt an approach of ecosystem thinking and an ecosystem that is digital. The value chain for agriculture stretches from selection of the crop to management and market access that includes both private and public players in agricultural inputs, services, as well as logistics.
The creation of a digital ecosystem for agriculture must take an overall view of issues like interoperability and data governance as well as data quality, standards security, privacy and security, in addition to fostering the development of new technologies. One of the most important requirements is the use of an open, decentralized architecture that guarantees autonomy to service providers as well as all other stakeholders and provides interoperability at the same time. Recognizing the importance of digitalisation in the agricultural sector and other sectors, the Department of Agriculture, Government of India is establishing the federated database of farmers and is constructing various services around it in order to create digital ecosystems for agriculture.
Farmer records from across the country will be linked to a federated database and a unique ID will be created for each farmer. With a unified database of all farmers, all benefits and supports provided by state and federal governments can be kept in one place, which can serve as a source for accessing information in the future to provide benefits to farmers. Currently, the database contains information about 5.5 crore farmers.
Kailash Chaudhary, Union Minister of State for Agriculture; Shobha Karandlaje, Union Minister of State for Agriculture; Sanjay Aggarwal Secretary, DA&FW; Vivek Aggarwal, Additional Secretary (Digital Agriculture), GoI; Harish Krishnan, Managing Director, Public Affairs & Strategic Engagements, CISCO; Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Co-Founder and CEO, Ninjacart; Dr. Shanker Adawal, President and Head of Regulatory & Corporate Affairs, Jio Platforms; Rajnikant Rai, Divisional Chief Executive, ITC; and Mrugank Paranjape, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, NCDEX e-Markets Limited (NeML) attended the event as well.
