Tomar assures: Access to federated Farmers’ database is with the Government only
Tech-heavyweights Microsoft, Amazon and Cisco are participating in the creation of “India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA)”, laying down a framework for Agristack which is being built by taking the publicly available data as existing in the Department of Agriculture and in various data silos in the Government.
Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar gave this update in a written reply in Lok Sabha on 13 Dec 2022, while assuring that “Agristack is a federated structure and ownership of data is with the States only.”
“Access to federated Farmers’ database is with the Government only. No private company is involved in developing the federated Farmers’ database,” he has underlined.
A Task Force was constituted and, in furtherance, a concept paper on IDEA was prepared and comments were invited from subject experts, farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and general public.
Elaborating, Tomar pointed out that Memoranda of Understandings (MoUs) for Proof of Concepts (PoCs) with various companies for development of use cases have been signed and accordingly carried out.
Details of MoUs entered by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare with leading Technology, Agri-tech, StartUp companies to develop Proof of Concepts (PoCs):
The MoUs and Agreements are with:
Microsoft India Pvt. Ltd is for consolidating agri ecosystem across the value chain (farm to fork) to empower the farmer using Data Analytics in 100 villages;
ESRI India Technologies Limited is for Establishment & Launch of “Nation Agriculture Geo Hub” and for using their ‘ArcGIS’ platform enabling a GIS layer over Farmers’ Database;
Amazon Web Services India is for digital services across the agri value chain and creating an innovation ecosystem around digital agriculture;
Star Agribazaar Technology Private limited is for collaborating with Department of Agriculture for a pilot project to promote digital agriculture;
Patanjali Organic Research Institute Private Limited is for farm management and farmers’ service;
JIO Platforms Ltd is for taking up primary intervention module, i.e., advisory (basic as well as advanced) service in first phase;
ITC Limited is for building a Customized ‘Site Specific Crop Advisory’ service and Digitization of Dairy Value Chain and support Wheat crop operations;
Cisco Commerce India Pvt Ltd is for conceptualizing a Proof of Concept in effective knowledge sharing between farmers, administration, academia and industry;
NCDEX e-Markets Ltd (NeML) is for a digital marketplace to contribute effectively towards increasing the income of farmers and improve farm efficiency/efficiency of the Agriculture sector;
Ninjacart of 63Ideas Infolabs Pvt Ltd is for developing and hosting the Agri Marketplace Platform;
Artificial Intelligence Unit of National Entrepreneurship Network (Wadhwani AI);
It also wants to scale the Pest Management Solution for Cotton Farmers to about 50,000 lead farmers and 500,000+ cascade farmers in 2022 Kharif season. Create AI/ML solution. fiinews.com
