Lok Sabha Question No. 218 (STARRED), answered on 2021-08-03
Subject: Digital Services to Farmers
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Kotagiri Sridhar, Sarmistha Sethi

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

## LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 218

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE  3 rd  AUGUST, 2021

## DIGITAL SERVICES TO FARMERS

- *218.    SHRI SRIDHAR KOTAGIRI: SHRIMATI SARMISTHA SETHI:

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  a  private  company  for creation/development of digital services and innovation in the agricultural value chain;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the  steps  taken  so  far  by  the  Government  to  provide  farmers  access  to  digital services and their integration in the agricultural value chain;
- (d) the total value of the services being provided by the said company and other details of the MoU; and
- (e) the  steps  taken  or  proposed  to  be  taken  by  the  Government  to  ensure  that  the personal data of the farmers is not misused by the private company?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी

(SHRI NARENDRA  SINGH TOMAR)

- (a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (e)  OF  LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.  218    DUE FOR REPLY ON 3 rd  AUGUST, 2021.

(a) to (e): 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 been prepared  and  comments  were  invited  from  subject  experts,  farmers,  Farmer  Producer Organisations (FPOs) and general public. 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  with  an  overall  goal  of  Doubling  of  Farmers'  Incomes.  A federated farmers' database is being built by the Department and once completed, this would serve as the core of the Agristack.

Leading  Technology/Agri-tech/StartUp  companies  were  identified  and invited to collaborate with the Government of India and develop Proof of Concepts (PoC) based on the federated  Farmers'  database.  A  public  call  through  the  Department's  website  was  also issued inviting proposals for MoU. Companies were invited to sign MoU on purely pro bono basis  for  a  period  of  one  year  and  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.  In  this  regard,  the  Government  has  recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on pro bono basis with private companies, viz. Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Agribazaar, Patanjali, and ESRI for working on Proof of Concept (PoC) in the select Districts/Villages to develop a model for creation/development of digital services and   innovation   in the agricultural value chain. The services provided by the

companies would be in the form of Proof of Concepts (PoC) and can not be quantified in monetary terms. The details of the MoU are given at Annexure.

The  Department  is  reaching  out  to  farmers  of  the  country  through  various  digital platforms including websites and mobile applications. With increased penetration of Internet & Smart Phones, the digital divide is getting narrowed.

As  of  now,  the  federated  farmers'  database  is  being  built  by  taking  the  publicly available  data  as  existing  in  the  Department  and  in  various  data  silos  in  Government  and linking them with the digitised land records. This Department in consultation with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is in the process of bringing out a data policy for the agriculture sector.

## Annexure

Details  of  MoU  entered  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  Farmers  Welfare with leading Technology/Agri-tech/StartUp  companies to develop Proof of Concepts (PoCs):

- I. Microsoft India Pvt. Ltd. - for consolidating agri ecosystem across the value chain (farm to fork) to empower the farmer using Data Analytics. In this regard, 100 villages have been selected and a pilot is being carried out by Microsoft and their local partner.
- II. Amazon  Web  Services  India  -  for  digital  services  across  the  agri  value  chain  and creating an innovation ecosystem around digital agriculture.
- III. Star  Agribazaar  Technology  Private  limited  -  for  collaborating  with  Department  of Agriculture to provide an integrated platform to provide access to digital marketplaces to reach out to farmers, for a pilot project in 3 Districts (Kota in Rajasthan, Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, Guna in Madhya Pradesh) to promote digital agriculture.
- IV. Patanjali Organic Research Institute private Limited - for farm management and unified farmers  service  interface  in  03  districts  (Haridwar  in  Uttarakhand,  Hamirpur  in  Uttar Pradesh and Morena in Madhya Pradesh).
- V. ESRI India Technologies Limited - for Establishment & Launch of  'Nation Agriculture Geo  Hub'  and  for  using  their  'ArcGIS'  platform  enabling  a  GIS  layer  over  Farmers' Database.

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