Govt working towards a digitized agricultural ecosystem: Tomar

New Delhi: The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has constituted a High Level Task Force, which is in the process of finalizing “India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA)” report.

Task Force recently invited comments from subject experts, farmers, Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and general public and considered them. Based on this, the Department is in the process of finalizing a framework for creating Agristack in the country.

Speaking in the Parliament on April 05, 2022, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar said, “Agristack will serve as a foundation to build innovative agri-focused solutions leveraging digital technologies to contribute effectively towards increasing the income of farmers and improve efficiency of the agriculture sector in the country.”

“Once finalized, this can serve as a foundation to build innovative agri-focused solutions leveraging technologies to contribute effectively towards increasing the income of farmers and improve farm efficiency/efficiency of the agriculture sector in the country, Minister said.

“In this regard, leading agriculture technology startups companies were identified and invited to collaborate with the Government of India and develop Proof of Concepts (PoCs) based on data of select districts and villages. A public call through the Department’s website was issued inviting proposals for Memorandum of Understanding,” added Mr Tomar.

He further pointed out that under National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture guideline, funds are released to the States/Union Territories for the projects involving use of modern information technologies such as such as Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Block Chain Technology, Internet of Things, Robotics etc., and for customization/shifting of web & mobile applications already developed by the States, to the platform to be developed using digital technologies.