Lok Sabha Question No. 599 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-12-02
Subject: Promoting Agriculture under Digital India
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: KONDA VISHWESHWAR REDDY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS &INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.  599

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 02.12.2015

## PROMOTING  AGRICULTURE UNDER DIGITAL INDIA

## 599 SHRI   KONDA  VISHWESHWAR REDDY:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) the  details  of  the  proposed  programmes  for  agriculture  and  its  allied  sectors  under  the  Digital  India Initiative;
- (b) whether  the  Government  plans  to  directly  involve  farmers  and  fishermen  as  beneficiaries  of  the programmes; and
- (c)    if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

- (a) to (c): The Government of India has undertaken various initiatives for agriculture and its allied sectors under Digital India programme. The important technology programmes directly connecting & benefitting the farmers and fishermen are as follows:
- 1) The Government of India is implementing 'National e-governance Plan in Agriculture (NeGP-A)' in the entire country with a total project cost of Rs.885.79 crore. It aims to provide information to farmers free of cost  on  seeds,  fertilizers  and  pesticides,  Government  Schemes,  Soil  health,  crop  management,  farm machinery,  fishery  inputs,  irrigation  infrastructure,  weather  and  marketing  of  agriculture  produces  through various  Information  &  Communication  Technologies(ICT)  enabled  means  like  short  messaging  service (SMS),  Interactive  Voice  response  system  (IVRS),  Unstructured  Supplementary  Services  data  (USSD)  & Internet Kiosks etc.
- 2) An mKisan Portal has been developed which is an umbrella portal for all mobile based initiatives in the field of Agriculture & allied sectors. It brings together SMS (both Push and Pull), Interactive Voice Response System, Unstructured Supplementary Services of Data or USSD (which is essentially Interactive SMS and can facilitate data entry and query on Web Portals without internet), Mobile Apps and Services.  Till date, more than 1035 crores SMSs have been sent to farmers by all agencies/ organisation/ departments in agriculture and allied sectors down to Block level throughout the country.
- 3) A  Farmers' Portal has been developed which aims to serve as a One Stop Shop for  all  the  farmers  for accessing information on agricultural activities.
- 4) Kisan Call Centres (KCC) have been set up in different states which provide information to farmers in their own languages. More than 198 lakh calls have been received by KCC since its inception in.
- 5) 80  portals  /  applications  have  been  developed  covering  both  the  headquarters  and    field  offices/ directorates    such  as    SEEDNET(Information  on  quality  seeds),  DACNET  (e-Governance  initiative), AGMARKNET (prices  and  arrivals  in  Mandis),  RKVY  (Rashtriya  Krishi  Vikas  Yojana),  ATMA,  NHM (National Horticulture Mission), INTRADAC, NFSM (National Food Security Mission) and APY (Acreage, Productivity and Yield).
- 6) Ministry  of  Agriculture  and  National  Dairy  Development Board (NDDB) has developed an application called 'Pashu Poshan'. This application enables dairy farmers to balance the ration for their animals as per their nutritional requirements and locally available feed material which optimizes the cost of feeding, too.
- 7) Newly  developed  application  of  Information  Network  for  Animal  Productivity  &  Health  (INAPH)  has been made available on web as well as android platform.
- 8) A mobile application, namely M-agriculture has been launched for water resource  management for Jhinga cultivation.

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