The India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture framework will lay down the architecture for the federated farmers’ database, linking them with the digitized land records:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released 10th instalment of financial benefit under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme recently via video conferencing. This has enabled the transfer of an amount of more than Rs200 billion to the bank accounts of more than 100 million beneficiary farmer families.
PM has also released equity grant of more than Rs140 million to about 351 FPOs; to benefit more than 0.12 million farmers. Prime Minister interacted with FPOs during the event. Union minister of agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar and chief ministers, LGs, agriculture ministers and farmers from several states were linked to the event.
Millions of farmer families in the country, especially small farmers, have received the 10th instalment of The Prime Minister’s Kisan Samman Nidhi. FPO from Tamil Nadu informed that with NABARD support, they formed FPO to get better prices and the FPO is fully owned and operated completely by women. FPO from Uttar Pradesh thanked the Prime Minister for creating FPOs as foundation of the prosperity of the farmers. They are getting benefits of e-Nam facilities.
PM said that the country is spending Rs2.6 trillion on making ration available to the vulnerable sections. Kisan Samman Nidhi is a big support for India’s farmers. If we include transfer till date including 10th instalment, more than Rs1.80 trillion have been transferred directly to the accounts of the farmers. Through FPOs, small farmers are feeling the power of collective strength. These FPOs are getting help of up to Rs1.5 mn. As a result, FPOs like organic FPOs, oil seed FPOs, bamboo clusters and honey FPOs are coming up all over the country.
As of December 2021, a total of 8702 projects have been sanctioned under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) scheme with a loan amount of Rs62.54 billion, out of which, Rs22.91 billion have been disbursed for 4315 projects. Total 21,42,718 number of farmers have been enrolled under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maandhan Yojana (PM-KMDY). Under Namami Gange Program Rs1.01 billion fund has been released for 6181 clusters. Prior to 10th instalment, more than Rs1.60 trillion had already been directly transferred to more than 115.4 million farmers under PM-KISAN.
Digitalisation of Agri
According to Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar, the government has finalized an India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA) framework which would lay down the architecture for the federated farmers’ database. This is being built by taking the publicly available data as existing in various schemes and linking them with the digitized land records.
The government has identified technology/agritech/startup companies and invited them to collaborate with the Government of lndia and develop Proof of Concepts (PoC) based on the federated farmers’ database. A public notice through the agri department’s website is also issued inviting proposals for MoU. The department has invited companies to sign MoU on purely pro bono basis for a period of one year and develop PoCs. The PoCs will help in understanding solutions that can be built using available data and some of them, if found beneficial to the farmers will be scaled up at national level.
Under the National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture (NeGP-A), funds are released to the states/UTs for project involving use of modern technologies viz. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Robotics, Drones, Data Analytics, Block Chain etc.
Government of India has launched National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Scheme with the objective of creating online transparent competitive bidding system to facilitate farmers with remunerative prices for their produce. As on 29th November, 2021, more than 17.2 million farmers and 0.20 mn traders have registered on e-NAM platform. Also, 1000 mandis of 18 states and 3 UTs have been integrated with e-NAM platform as on 29th November 2021.
Promoting Agri Start-Ups
The ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare has launched a component called ‘Innovation and Agri-Entrepreneurship Development’ (IAED) under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana – Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sectors Rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR) with objective to promote innovation and agri-entrepreneurship by providing financial support and nurturing the incubation ecosystem. Rs10.34 billion has been released to the states during 2021-22.
According to Narendra Singh Tomar, so far, his ministry has supported 646 start-ups in the agriculture and allied sectors under IAED programme for funding of a sum of Rs699.2 million in instalments and has released Rs339.4 mn to RKVY-Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs) and other partners for funding these start-ups.
