National Digital, Agriculture and Marketing Eco-system To Come Up Soon – Vivek Aggarwal, Joint Secretary GoI
Enormous Database of Farmers For Help to Farming Community
https://www.facebook.com/Mppostnews/videos/326290585148817/
Bhopal, 16 September 2020.
The upcoming National Digital, Agriculture and Marketing Eco-system will not only be helpful to farmers but also facilitate the private and government agencies and service providers operative in farm sector. This was stated by Mr. Vivek Agarwal, Joint Secretary & CEO, Prime Minister Kisan, Government of India, Ministry of Agriculture while speaking on the topic “Digital Agri -Governance its multi-layered benefits” at Facebook Live organized by MPPost’s event under as series of online discussions on the celebrating two decades of positive digital journalism.
Vivek Aggarwal said that innovation and knowledge hubs are also coming up with active support of private partners.
Moderator of Facebook Live discussion was Sarman Negele editor of MPPOST.
Mr. Agrawal informed that collaborating a huge database of farmers with the database of land records in 11 states, the intermediary interface has been created and onboard the farmer’s database through API sharing. Besides, digital exchange-digital platform of all types of data base relating to farmers and their produce is also being built up. Land records of five crore farmers have been mapped.
Mr. Aggarwal informed that a federated link of a national database of all the welfare government schemes is being developed . It will be an Agristock at national exchange. This agreement will also include data from satellite imagery. And this database could be used by the service providers, private and government agencies in the interest of farmers.
Mr. Agrawal further informed that a database of about 10 crore farmers will be created by this year through Artificial Intelligence. Along with this, local and farm specific advisory related to crops and rain will also be issued. This will enable the farmers to directly benefit from various government schemes. This data will be exchanged with the states and also with other agencies for greater use in the interest of farmers.
Agriculture Digital Wing
During interactive session, Mr. Vivek Aggarwal said that contract farming laws are being framed. Ordinances have been issued to help the farmers get the right price for his produce and can sell their product even in other states.
He informed that for the convenience of farmers, digital governance models are being worked out. The Agriculture Digital Wing has been created separately. Maximum use of digital technology should be ensured for the benefit of farmers and farm sector. E-marketing is also being encouraged.
Farm sector start-ups to be encouraged
Mr. Vivek Aggarwal said that To increase the income of farmers, start-ups are also being encouraged. As a component under the National Agricultural Development Plan, the Innovation and Agricultural Entrepreneurship Development Program has been initiated to promote innovation and agricultural entrepreneurship by providing financial support and nurturing the incubation ecosystem. These start-ups are in various categories like agro-processing, artificial intelligence, digital agriculture, agricultural mechanization, waste to wealth, dairy, fisheries etc.
Agriculture Infrastructure Fund
The CEO Pradhan Mantri Kisan Yojana said that a provision has been made for farmers to provide loans to digital startups from the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund set up with seed money of Rs 1 lakh crore . He said that facilities are being provided to the farmers through mobile governance. He also informed that Ministry of Agriculture will promote 10 thousand new Farmer Producer Organizations in each block of the country.
