Lok Sabha Question No. 2525 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-03
Subject: National Agriculture Geo Hub
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Goddeti Madhavi, Kotagiri Sridhar, Chandra Sekhar Bellana, Beesetti  Venkata Satyavathi, M V V Satyanarayana

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2525

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 3 RD  AUGUST, 2021

## NATIONAL AGRICULTURE GEO HUB

2525. SHRIMATI GODDETI MADHAVI: SHRI SRIDHAR KOTAGIRI: SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR BELLANA: DR. BEESETTI VENKATA SATYAVATHI: SHRI V.V. SATYANARAYANA:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  Government  has  recently  signed  an  MoU  with  Private  company  for setting up and launching the National Agriculture Geo Hub;
- (b)  If so, the details thereof;
- (c)  the  major  aims,  objectives  and  benefits  in  setting  up  a  National  Agriculture  Geo Hub; and
- (d)  the financial costs  involved for the Government in establishing the Geo Hub and the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

- (a)    to  (d)  :  The  Department  has  commenced  the  work  for  creating  Agristack  in  the country.  In  order  to  create  Agristack,  the  department  is  in  the  process  of  finalising 'India  Digital  Ecosystem  of  Agriculture  (IDEA)'  which  will  lay  down  a  framework  for Agristack.  Accordingly,  a  Task  Force  has  been  constituted  and  in  furtherance,  a Concept  Paper  on  IDEA  has  already  been  floated  for  comments  from  the  general public  not  only  through  department's  website  but  also  through  emails  especially  to subject  matter  specialists,  Agro-Industry,  Farmers,  Farmer  Producer  Organisations (FPOs).The IDEA would help in laying down the architecture for the Agri-stack in the country and that 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.  This  Ecosystem  shall  help  the  Government  in effective planning towards increasing the income of farmers in particular and improving the  efficiency  of  the  Agriculture  sector  as  a  whole.  As  a  first  step  in  this  direction Government  has  already  initiated  building  federated  farmers'  database  that  would serve as the core of the envisaged Agristack. No  private  sector  companies  are  involved  as  far  as  building  of  the  Agristack  is concerned. However, leading Technology/Agri-tech/StartUp companies were identified and invited to collaborate with the Government of India to develop Proof of Concepts (PoC) based on small portions of data from the federated Farmers' database for certain identified areas (Districts/Village). A public call through the Department's website has been placed inviting proposals for PoCs. MoUs purely on pro bono basis with selected companies are being signed, for a period of one year to develop PoCs. The PoCs will help  in  understanding  solutions  that  can  be  built  using  available  data  and  some  of them, if found beneficial to the farmers will be scaled up at National level. Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has signed an MoU with Esri India Technologies  Private  Limited  for  working  on  a  Proof  of  Concept  (PoC)  in  select Districts/Villages to develop a model for an Agriculture Geo-Hub with an objective to establish  a  framework  to  collect  and  integrate  available  geo-spatial  information  with other associated information, perform spatial analytics, share results & data and deploy monitoring dynamic Apps which would support estimates for policy planning, requirements and ease in decision making.

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