Lok Sabha Question No. 484 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-07-20
Subject: AI in Agriculture
Ministry: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Parvesh Sahib Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 484

TO BE ANSWERED ON 20.07.2022

## AI IN AGRICULTURE

## 484.    SHRI PARVESH SAHIB SINGH VERMA:

Will  the  Minister  of  SCIENCE  AND  TECHNOLOGY ǒव£ान  और  Ĥौƭोिगकȧ  मंğी be pleased to state whether the Government is taking steps/initiatives with regard to application of biotechnology, Nano technology/ Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture, health and manufacturing sector and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY & EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

ǒव£ान और Ĥौƭोिगकȧ तथा पृØवी ǒव£ान मंğालय के  राÏय मंğी (èवतंğ Ĥभार) (डॉ . ǔजतɅġ िसंह)

Yes  Sir,  the  Government  is  taking  steps/initiatives  with  regard  to  application  of biotechnology, Nanotechnology/Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Agriculture, health and manufacturing sector. The details are as follows:

The Department of Science & Technology (DST) is implementing a National MissionInterdisciplinary  Cyber  Physical  Systems  (NMICPS),  with  a  budget  outlay  of  Rs. 3,660.00 crore for a period of 5 years. As part of the Mission implementation, 25 Technology  Innovation  Hubs  (TIHs)  have  been  established  in  reputed  institutes across the country in advanced technologies. The following TIHs are working in the areas of Agriculture, health and manufacturing:

|   S No. | Technology Innovation Hub                                 | Technology Vertical                                                        |
|---------|-----------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|       1 | I-DAPT-Hub Foundation, IIT BHU                            | Data Analytics & Predictive Technologies                                   |
|       2 | IIT Ropar Technology & Innovation Foundation at IIT Ropar | Technologies for Agriculture & Water                                       |
|       3 | TIH Foundation for IoT And IoE at IIT Bombay              | Technologies for Internet of Things (IOT) and Internet of Everything (IoE) |

Some of the technology development initiatives by the TIHs are 6G Rural Health Care  Network  for  School  Children,  6G  Precision  Agriculture  Network  facilitating vertical  farming,  Agri-drones,  bioplastics,  Infant  Asphyxia  treatment  to  prevent celebral palsy, AI-based Cattle Management System,  IoT enabled pond aeration system, modular urban farming systems, AI/ Machine Learning (ML) driven precision agriculture systems, AI-based application for  Consumer-Oriented Agriculture Production and Matching of Dietary Preferences and Digital Entomologist Network an AI-based Cyber Physical System (CPS) to identify flying insects.

DST, under its Nano Mission Initiative, has supported thematic projects on nano technology  in  agriculture  and  through  the  Technology  Development  Programme

(TDP), seven projects in the area of AI in agriculture have been supported. Under the  India-Japan  Joint  Research laboratory,  DST has  supported a project entitled 'Data  Science-Based  Farming  Support  System  for  sustainable  Crop  Production under Climatic Change (DSFS)' to IIT Hyderabad for developing a sustainable crop production support system using evolving data science. Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a statutory body under DST, has supported 35 projects to study the application of AI in Agriculture, health and manufacturing sector.

Under  KISANMITR  initiative  of  the  office  of  Principal  Scientific  Adviser,  an Atmanirbhar App has been developed for providing critical information such as soil health, weather, moisture and ground water quality to the farmers.

Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), under its Nanotechnology Initiatives Division, has established various Centres of Excellence in Nanotechnology (CENs) at IISc Bangalore, IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Guwahati and IIT Kharagpur. Technologies developed at these centers are being transferred to various start-ups and industries for customization and productization in the Agriculture and Healthcare sector. Some of the startups such as Proximal SoilSens Technologies Pvt. Ltd. at IIT Bombay, Primary Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. at IIT Guwahati, Pathshodh Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. at IISc Bangalore, Shanmukha Innovations Pvt. Ltd. at  IISc  Bangalore are  incorporating  AI  - based  solutions  to commercialize Nanotechnology based agriculture and healthcare products in the market. Various  R&D  projects  are  also  being  implemented  at  these  CENs  for developing nano-electronics based  technological solutions in the sector of Agriculture and healthcare.

Department  of  Biotechnology  (DBT)  has  supported  857  projects  in  the  area  of Agriculture (including Agriculture Biotechnology, Nano-biotechnology, Aquaculture and Marine Biotechnology, Animal Biotechnology etc.) and health (including Stem Cell, Cancer Disease Biology, Genome Editing Technology in the Nanobiotechnology, AI in health etc).

Department  of  Agriculture  and  Farmers  Welfare,  under  its  Digital  Agriculture Scheme, has implemented projects involving modern technological solutions like AI, ML, Blockchain, Data Analytics, IoT, Robotics and Drones.

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is implementing projects in the areas  of  biotechnology,  Nano  technology/  Robotics  and  Artificial  Intelligence  in Agriculture,  health  and  manufacturing  sector  through  its  various  laboratories namely; CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIR-CSIO), Chandigarh; CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CMERI), Durgapur; CSIR-Fourth Paradigm Institute (CSIR-4PI), Bengaluru; CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (CSIR-IMTECH), Chandigarh and CSIR-Central Electronics Engineering

Research Institute (CSIR-CEERI), Pilani.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is implementing the National Digital Hearth Mission  (NDHM)  (Now  known  as  Ayushman  Bharat  Digital  Mission-ABDM),  which aims  to  support  the  integrated  digital  health  infrastructure  of  the  country  and promote use of digital health technologies in health sector. The ABDM integrates cutting edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, IoTs, block-chain etc. with existing health IT applications as per need for improving the performance of the health services.

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