Union Cabinet approves INR 2817 Cr Digital Farming Mission

ABSTRACT

The Digital Agriculture Mission will serve as a comprehensive program supporting digital agriculture initiatives such as the creation of the Digital Agriculture Inspection Plan and the implementation of the Digital Crop Assessment Survey

As part of the program, the Center intends to build three DPIs – Agristack, Krishi Decision Support System and Soil Profile Mapping

Thanks to AgriStack, farmers will gain a digital identity that will be linked to, among others, state land registers, information on livestock ownership, crops sown, demographic data and family data

Days after expanding the scope of the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF), the union cabinet approved the Digital Agriculture Mission programme with an outlay of Rs2,817 billion to strengthen the country’s agriculture sector and improve farmers’ income.

The Digital Agriculture Mission will be a comprehensive programme to support digital agriculture initiatives such as creation of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for agriculture, implementation of Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES) and other IT initiatives by the Central Government, State Governments and academic and research institutions.

The programme includes soil profile mapping, digital crop assessment, digital yield modelling, crop loans and modern technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data, the government said in a statement on Monday (September 2).

As part of the program, the Center intends to build three DPIs – Agristack, Krishi Decision Support System and Soil Profile Mapping

AgriStack will provide farmers with a digital identity, similar to Aadhaar, that will be linked to government land records, livestock ownership, crops planted, demographic data, family information, programs and benefits.

Crops sown by farmers will be recorded using mobile field surveys, i.e. Digital Crop Surveys, which will be conducted every season.

The Centre has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with 19 state governments to set up and implement DPIs for agriculture. The basic IT infrastructure for implementing AgriStack has also been developed and is currently being pilot tested.

Using the Krishi decision support system, the centre intends to build a comprehensive geospatial system that will enable the unification of information obtained from remote sensing, including crops, soil, weather and water resources.

The programme aims to profile soils of around 142 million hectares of agricultural land in the country. Of this, detailed soil profiling of around 29 million hectares has already been completed, the statement added.

The DGCES statement said that “will provide yield estimates based on scientifically designed crop-cutting experiments. This initiative will prove very useful in making accurate estimates of agricultural production.”

The Cabinet approval comes in line with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement in her budget speech this year. to create a DPI for agriculture.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan plans to launch AgriSURE Fund – a Category II alternative investment fund for startups operating in agriculture and allied sectors.

AgriSURE Fund worth INR 750 Cr will be we offer capital and debt support for agrotechnical startupswith a particular focus on high-risk, high-impact activities in the agriculture value chain.

Notably, India’s agriculture sector accounts for almost 16% of gross domestic product (GDP) and employs almost 44% of the country’s workforce.

While the sector continues to grapple with outdated practices and technologies, homegrown agri-tech startups are seeking to transform the Indian farming landscape with innovative digital solutions, from providing weather-based crop advice and soil analysis to promoting IoT-based practices and AI-based technology.

The rapidly growing agricultural sector is This is expected to be a $24 billion opportunity until 2025.