Mains Marathon 2024

Approach Briefly introduce the importance of agriculture in India's economy and society. Mention some transformative digital technologies in Indian agriculture. Highlight the challenges related to the integration of digital technologies in agriculture. Conclude Suitably.

Introduction

The Indian agriculture sector provides livelihood support to about 42.3 % of the population and has a share of 18.2 % in the country’s GDP at current prices. India’s agricultural sector is undergoing a significant transformation with the integration of digital technologies, which are enabling the creation of farmers' networks and maintaining continuous connectivity with service and advisory providers.

Body

Transformative Digital Technologies in Indian agriculture:

• Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in Agriculture: DPI will enable inclusive, farmer-centric solutions through relevant information services for crop planning and health, improved access to farm inputs, credit, and insurance, help for crop estimation, market intelligence, and support for growth of agri- tech industry and start-ups.
• Agri Stack: The initiative aims to simplify the planning and implementation of various government benefit schemes focused on farmers and agriculture. It is one of the key Digital Public Infrastructures (DPIs) featuring three foundational registries: the Farmers’ Registry, geo-referenced village maps, and the Crop Sown Registry, along with several additional support registries.
  • The 3 foundational Registries will enable digitally authenticable Identities and non-repudiable digital assets for the farmer in the form of Farmer IDs, geo-tagged farm plots, and crop-sown data.
• Krishi Decision Support System (Krishi-DSS): The Krishi Decision Support System (Krishi-DSS) aims to integrate and store in a standardized form relevant geospatial and non-geospatial data, such as remote-sensing data, weather data, soil data, crop signature library, reservoir data, groundwater data, and data pertaining to Government schemes.
• Krishi Mapper: A geospatial mobile application for all the land-based schemes, which enables geo-fencing (polygon creation / latitude-longitude) capture also incorporating Geotagged photographs from the current location of survey/inspection,
• Comprehensive Soil Fertility and Profile Mapping – for suitable soil health-related interventions,
• Digital General Crop Estimation Survey - accurately measure crop yields, through crop-cutting experiments on randomly selected plots.
• e NAM: National Agriculture Market (eNAM) is a pan-India electronic trading portal that networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities.
• Integrated Scheme for Agricultural Marketing schemes (AGMARKNET): to promote creation of agricultural marketing infrastructure by providing backend subsidy support to State, cooperative and private sector investments Services are provided through (AGMARKNET) portal that caters to the needs of various stakeholders such as farmers, industry, policy makers and academic institutions by providing agricultural marketing related information from a single window.
  • It facilitates web- based information flow, of the daily arrivals and prices of commodities in the agricultural produce markets spread across the country.
• Sub Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM): It aims at 'reaching the unreached' by bringing to the small and marginal farmers in the core and giving the benefits of farm mechanization, by promoting 'Custom Hiring Centers' , creating hubs for hi-tech & high value farm equipments, distribution of various agricultural equipments, creating awareness among stakeholders through demonstration and capacity building activities, and ensuring performance- testing and certification at designated testing centers located all over the country.
• Agritech Startups: India's drive towards digital agriculture is bolstered by a thriving ecosystem, including over 1,000 agri-tech startups in agriculture and related fields, with 387 of these being women-led initiatives.

Challenges

• Limited Digital Literacy:
  • Despite India's strides in digitalization, many farmers lack digital literacy and access to technology, making it challenging to adopt agri-tech solutions.
• High Upfront Costs:
  • Many agri-tech solutions require significant upfront investment, which can be a significant barrier for small-scale farmers who may not have the resources to invest.
• Limited Infrastructure:
  • Limited availability of basic infrastructure, such as electricity and internet connectivity, can hamper the adoption and effectiveness of agri-tech solutions

Conclusion

By investing in digital infrastructure and assisting farmers in adopting these technologies, India can create a more prosperous and sustainable agricultural future. The Digital Agriculture Mission 2021–2025 aims to modernize agriculture through advanced technologies such as AI, remote sensing, and drones. This technological advancement in agriculture has the potential to propel India toward becoming "Atmanirbhar Bharat."