Lok Sabha Question No. 448 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-07-20
Subject: Establishing Agristack
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Brijendra Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, COOPERATION AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 448

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 20 TH  JULY, 2021

## ESTABLISHING AGRISTACK

## 448. SHRIMATI KANIMOZHI KARUNANIDHI: SHRI BRIJENDRA SINGH:

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

- (a) whether the implementation of 'AgriStack', a project to promote technology-based interventions in the agriculture sector, has commenced, if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government has entered into agreements with private companies for establishing 'Agristack', if so, the details thereof;
- (c)  the  criteria  under  which  private  firms  were  selected  for  collaboration  on  the Agristack project; and
- (d)  the  details  of  the  mechanisms  available  with  the  Government  to  protect  the personal and non-personal data of farmers from being exploited/misused by the private companies in the absence of data protection laws?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

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

(a): 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.

(b) & (c): No Sir,  Government  has  not  entered  into  any  agreement  with  private companies  for  establishing  Agristack.  However,  based  on  data  which  is  already available in the public domain pertaining to several schemes of GoI and linking them with land records data, a federated farmers database is being prepared. Some data from  this  is  shared  on  selective  basis  with  leading  Technology/Agri-tech/StartUp companies to develop Proof of Concepts (PoCs). The collaboration is on pro-bono basis for a period of one year. The PoCs will help us understand the 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.

(d): As of now, the federated farmers' database is being built by taking the publicly available data as existing in various data silos in Government and no private data of the farmers is shared with any private organisation. 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.

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