The Digital Agriculture Mission, which has a budget of Rs 2,817 crore, is on the cusp of transforming the Indian agricultural sector. This mission will provide a comprehensive digital infrastructure that empowers farmers with modern technology, expert advice, and real-time solutions. The widespread use of mobile phones and the internet in rural areas facilitates this digital shift, allowing farmers to make informed decisions and increase productivity. All of this will bring about reducing disputes, and malpractices, and improving policy efficiencies by digitizing all records of land, financial transactions, and procurement processes; so, this would ultimately result in benefitting the country’s farmers.
| GS Paper | GS Paper III |
| Topics for UPSC Prelims | Digital Agriculture Mission, Kisan Suvidha app, Agri-Stack, Committee on Doubling Farmers’ Income (DFI), Precision Agriculture (PA), National Agriculture Market (eNAM), PM-KISAN, Digital Agriculture Mission, Soil Health Cards, BharatNet, NAMO (New Agriculture Market Order) Drone Didi Scheme, Kisan Call Centres, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), Farmers Producer Organisations (FPO) |
| Topics for UPSC Mains | Significance of Digitisation of Agriculture in Promoting Inclusive and Sustainable Agriculture in India. |
Origin of The Article
This editorial is based on “Farm to fork goes digital: Indian agri on the cusp of a tech revolution,” published in Business Standard on 27/10/2024. The article discusses the Digital Agriculture Mission’s goal to boost farmers’ welfare using digital infrastructure.
Relevance for UPSC Aspirants
This is a very relevant topic for UPSC students as it perfectly fits within the topics of the UPSC syllabus, which include GS Paper 2 and GS Paper 3, such as government policies, e-technology in farming, and agricultural marketing. It would provide them with a much-needed glimpse into policy-making, technology adoption, and rural development, which will be needed for both the prelims and mains exams.
Why in News?
It is an important initiative under the Digital Agriculture Mission for a UPSC aspirant doing interventions in agriculture by the central government. The mission had an allocation of Rs 2,817 crore it and is very much needed to study how, in the realm of agri-production and policy efficiency, digital tools can make an essential difference. This falls under the kind of UPSC questions on technology-based reforms in agriculture, seen as having made tremendous progress toward modernizing the agricultural landscape of the country.
Digital Agriculture
Digital Agriculture will be using the potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and data ecosystems to transform agriculture. This will help in the timely and accurate delivery of information to farmers to ensure that farming is profitable and sustainable. The overall objective is to improve productivity and efficiency while promoting environmental sustainability and economic viability.
Definition and Goals
Digital Agriculture refers to the use of ICT for the enhancement of agriculture. It achieves profitability and sustainability through data ecosystem integration. It provides real-time accurate information to the farmers to better decisions regarding farming to conserve resources. This transformation involves important technologies, including Remote Sensing, GIS, and AI.
Technologies Involved
The Committee on Doubling Farmers’ Income suggests different technologies for Digital Agriculture, which are Remote Sensing, GIS, Data Analytics, AI, IoT, Robotics, Drones, and Blockchain. All these facilitate precision farming, increasing productivity and assuring sustainability in agricultural operations. These tools deliver immediate data and insights for enhanced farm management and optimal usage of resources.
Need for Digitisation in Indian Agriculture
The sector is facing a plethora of problems that require digitization. These include low productivity, high costs, degradation of the environment, and socio-economic disparities. Digitization will help address these problems by increasing productivity, lowering costs, conserving resources, enhancing financial inclusion and traceability, and, therefore, uplifting the socio-economic status of farmers.
Increasing Productivity
Precision Agriculture applies fertilizers and monitors weather conditions using satellite data and IoT. This approach maximizes crop yields and conserves resources by ensuring inputs are used efficiently. Precision Agriculture enables farmers to make informed decisions, improving productivity and resource utilization, thus enhancing overall efficiency in agriculture.
Cost Reduction
The use of digital solutions has reduced the costs of traditional farming. ICT tools and soil sensors reduce unnecessary costs through optimized resource usage. Such technologies help streamline operations, thereby reducing dependence on expensive inputs such as agrochemicals. Thus, farmers can lower the costs of production, and agriculture will become more economically viable and sustainable through the use of digital solutions.
Enhanced Soil and Water Conservation
Soil mapping and remote sensing constitute an important part of the monitoring of soil health as well as water availability. These technologies support water-conserving practices that are necessary for sustainable agriculture. Digitization helps conserve resources and maintain soil fertility because it provides in-depth details about soil and water to ensure long-term agricultural sustainability.
Socio-Economic Upliftment
They expand the income and market access of farmers. The initiative, National Agriculture Market, or eNAM, links farmers to buyers. It enhances the reach of markets and transparency in prices. Digitization links rural producers directly to markets that enhance the socio-economic status of farmers, allowing them to adopt best practices, improve yield quality, and enhance economic security.
Financial Inclusion
Under the PM-KISAN program, direct transfers of funds enhance the capability of farmers to access greater credit. Digital technologies assure that financial services will be available for farmers, enhancing agricultural productivity and improving farm finances.
Improving Traceability and Quality Standards
Blockchain and AgriStack ensure traceability through the agricultural supply chain. They enhance food safety standards by keeping transparent records with no tolerance for post-harvest losses. The consequence of better traceability will be accountability and transparency in agricultural practices, which helps farmers adhere to quality standards and meet consumer demands successfully.
Data Collection
Further applications in drone and satellite imagery result in real-time, geo-referenced data. Scientific data serves as a reference for precision agriculture practices so that resources can be planned well before their deployment. With these technologies, farmers are able to optimize inputs, monitor crop health, and make decisions that will promote enhanced agricultural productivity.
Modeling and Data Analytics
Model and data analytics help enhance agricultural activities. Crop models, for instance, DSSAT-CSM, enable one to make an accurate growth and yield prediction; all these tools provide efficient resource allocation by integrating multiple data sources to apply machine learning techniques in improving yield estimation. This improves agricultural efficiency and output.
Delivery and Control
What the Digital Revolution Brings to Farm Management The digital revolution has transformed farm management through its help in pest identification, monitoring of irrigation, and yield forecasting. All these enhancements improve agricultural practices, reduce pollution, and provide farmers with critical market intelligence and financial services that enhance overall farm productivity and sustainability.
Digital Agriculture Mission
The Digital Agriculture Mission with a budget of Rs 2817 Crore sets out to provide robust digital infrastructure for agriculture. A few key initiatives underpin the approach of easy access for farmers to digital tools and expert advice on real-time solutions that should result in improved productivity, efficiency, and sustainability.
Overview and Budget
The Digital Agriculture Mission proposes to create Digital Public Infrastructure in an outlay of Rs 2817 Crore. Launched with the budget for both 2023-24 and 2024-25, it aims at enhancing the welfare and productivity of farmers through better digital infrastructure, ICT-based tools, and solutions.
State Collaboration
It will be an aligned mission with 19 states through MoUs. The development of digital public infrastructure will be consistent with MoUs and, therefore, ensure the integration of digitization into diverse agricultural landscapes, bringing uniformity and efficiency to the implementation of digital solutions.
Agri Stack
Agri Stack is, in fact a digital identification of the farmers, a sort of Aadhaar. In this, there is collected data about crops through mobile surveys that will give all-inclusive profiles of farmers. These initiatives will add to more traceability and accountability towards agricultural practices as well as efficiency, where support resources are targetedly provided for farmers.
Krishi Decision Support System
This system was launched in the year 2024. Krishi decision support system integrated crop, soil, and weather data from remote sensing. It will help make soil profile maps for 142 million hectares. Hence, it will help increase agricultural productivity and resource management by providing detailed insights into farmer decisions.
Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES)
The DGCES, to be implemented all across the country in 2024-25, measures proper yield. This system of agricultural planning and formation of policy has improved by means of efficient data, support by proper resource utilization for the farmers, and better productivity and efficiency for the total agricultural sector.
Krishi Sakhis
The Krishi Sakhis program empowers women by training them in agroecological techniques as Para-extension Workers. Strengthening the roles of women in agriculture and knowledge acquisition will help to bring out rural farming practices and therefore enhance gender equity and socio-economic development.
Other Government Initiatives to Promote Digital Agriculture
Through certain programs on ICT integration, digital literacy, and infrastructure development, the government has undertaken various initiatives in respect to digital agriculture, thereby improving access among farmers, increasing productivity, and supporting sustainable agricultural practices across India.
National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture (NeGP-A)
Launched in 2010-11, NeGP-A is an initiative promoting ICT in agriculture, in the form of digital literacy and access to information. It consists of e-extensions of support services guiding farmers through the process of digital transformation and enhancing their ability to utilize digital tools for better agricultural practices.
Unified Farmer Service Platform (UFSP)
UFSP shall be the central consolidating body of infrastructure, data, applications, and tools; this would make public and private agricultural IT systems interoperable, thus accelerating service delivery processes and simplifying them towards the convenience of farmers to further enhance overall efficiency and productivity.
Farmers Database
It will create a pan-state record, which is connected with the land records, generating particular IDs for farmers and maintaining the database in central points that can support better agriculture planning, policy formulations, and the efficient channelizing of benefits. Thus, there would be efficient focused benefits for farmers under all policies.
BharatNet
The rural broadband initiative BharatNet connects Gram Panchayats through high-speed optical fiber. For the first time, farmers in rural areas will gain access to digital weather forecasts, market prices, and modern farming techniques.
NAMO Drone Didi Scheme
The NAMO Drone Didi Scheme aims to empower women through training in drone technology. The promotion of the drone ecosystem fortifies the positions of women in agriculture through digitization and modern agricultural methods, hence aiding rural development and gender equality.
Other Supporting Initiatives
Some other notable initiatives include the Kisan Suvidha App, Soil Health Card Portal, and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. It provides access to critical information and services to farmers through digital platforms, such as market rates, weather forecasts, and financial support for agricultural efficiency.
Challenges of Digitisation in Indian Agriculture
Digitization in Indian agriculture faces challenges such as high initial capital requirements, small land holdings, digital literacy constraints, inadequate infrastructure, limited credit access, data security concerns, and complexity in data capture. All these have to be addressed for technology adoption to be successful.
High Initial Capital Requirements
Major investment in drone and satellite image usage is required. So there is a monetary bottleneck at the small farm size scale. Most small farm holdings depend on governmental grants or financial packages. Due to their inadequacies at the scale needed to impact Indian agriculture’s transformation.
Small Land Holdings
The major challenge to the adoption of a digital solution comes from small farms, which are 89.4% of agricultural households. In most cases, high digitization costs cannot easily be justified by most small landholders. Hence their low adoption rates, limiting the potential benefits that could be derived from digital agriculture in rural regions.
Digital Literacy Constraints
Lack of digital literacy and rural illiteracy are major barriers to adopting technology. Tele-density is also uneven in rural areas, which hampers farmers from reaching vital digital tools. The absence of training programs also acts as a barrier for the adoption of ICT solutions, and hence, further hinders the digitization of Indian agriculture.
Inadequate Rural Infrastructure
The internet and power supply vary irregularly in rural regions, making them infrastructure challenging. Low penetration of broadband and mobile networks creates digital exclusion. Hence slowing up the adoption of digital tools and agricultural digitization efforts in most rural areas.
Limited Access to Credit and Financing
Still, an absolute fact remains that a formal credit unavailability process prevents small farmers from investing in the digitization process. Due to their very bad creditworthiness by holding no collateral, acquiring loans has become an issue for small farmers. Therefore friendly financial products for these are in high demand as this will boost those investments in technologies.
Data Trust and Security
The biggest hindrance of digital agriculture is data privacy and security issues; thus, data trust, validation, and storage require teamwork between researchers and IT experts using IoT technology to come up with proper solutions for managing agricultural data.
Complexity in Data Capture
Moreover, data integration becomes complex with diversities in crops, climate zones, and soil conditions. This complexity bars the wide-scale adoption of digital agriculture solutions and thus requires tailored applications for addressing India’s specific scenario.
PESTEL Analysis
| Political: The Indian government’s support is crucial for digital agriculture, evident in its Rs 2,817 crore allocation for the Digital Agriculture Mission. Programs like AgriStack and partnerships with 19 states demonstrate a political commitment to modernizing agriculture, simplifying policy implementation, and aligning agriculture with national goals like the Digital India initiative. Economic: Digital agriculture can increase productivity and lower costs, making farming more profitable. Precision agriculture reduces input costs, while platforms like eNAM connect farmers directly to markets, boosting incomes. The economic challenge lies in the high initial costs and limited access to credit, though targeted financial support and partnerships could mitigate this. Social: Digitizing agriculture has socio-economic benefits, such as improving farmers’ incomes, connecting them to resources, and promoting financial inclusion. Platforms like PM-KISAN facilitate access to credit and insurance, while initiatives like Krishi Sakhis empower rural women with training, boosting economic opportunities and enhancing rural livelihoods. Technological: Technologies like IoT, AI, drones, and blockchain are pivotal in advancing digital agriculture. Tools like remote sensing, soil mapping, and data analytics enable precise farming, improve soil and water conservation, and enhance traceability and food quality. Building a robust digital infrastructure is key, yet rural connectivity remains a technological hurdle. Environmental: Digital agriculture aids in sustainable farming by enabling efficient resource use, reducing chemical input, and conserving water. Technologies like precision agriculture and soil mapping contribute to soil health and water conservation, making agriculture more eco-friendly and minimizing pollution and waste while promoting sustainable practices in India. Legal: Data security and privacy are essential in digital agriculture, as sensitive information like crop data and farmer identities are collected under AgriStack. Establishing strong data protection policies will be critical to building farmer trust, ensuring regulatory compliance, and enabling secure public-private partnerships that support the sector’s growth. |
Conclusion
Digital agriculture is revolutionizing Indian farming, enhancing its efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. With the missions of Digital Agriculture, Agri-Stack, and Krishi Decision Support Systems provide real-time data, expert advice, and direct benefits. Farmers can better manage farming. As the internet has been reaching into rural pockets, creating a tech culture, this is further increasing productivity and decreasing the cost for the farmers, while letting them make proper decisions to grow better crops. Training, policy support, and public-private partnerships are essential as Indian agriculture would be completely independent and capable of competition at a global level.
| UPSC Civil Services Examination, Previous Year Questions (PYQs) Mains Q. How can the ‘Digital India’ program help farmers to improve farm productivity and income? What steps has the Government taken in this regard? (UPSC Mains 2015, GS Paper III) Q. Examine the role of the Digital Agriculture Mission in addressing key challenges in Indian agriculture, including farmer income, resource efficiency, and transparency. How can initiatives like Agri-Stack and BharatNet strengthen the ecosystem for sustainable agriculture? |
