The Government of India has started stakeholder consultation to deliver digital and hi-tech services to farmers through public-private partnership (PPP). The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare also came forward in association with the World Economic Forum and organised a one day stakeholder consultation on Public Private Partnership in digital Agriculture on Monday.
According to a data shared by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology India has the potentiality to raise the economic value of around $50-65 billion through digital agriculture by 2025 and translating to 23 percent addition to the current value of agriculture produce.
Manoj Ahuja, Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare repeats the Union Budget 2022-23 reads out a policy on it stating, “Delivery of digital and hi-tech services to farmers with involvement of public sector research and extension institutions along with private agritech players and stakeholders of agri value chain”.
Pramod Kumar Meherda, Joint Secretary (Digital Agriculture, DA&FW) explain about the outlook of digital agriculture involving modern technologies that are transforming the agriculture sector. He also put emphasis on the role of each stakeholder in realising the potential of digital agriculture.
The World Economic Forum has launched the AI for Agriculture Innovation (AI4AI) initiative and Food Innovation Hubs with the collaboration of Ministry of Agriculture and multiple state governments with the purpose of enabling and uplifting PPPs for driving innovation across the agriculture ecosystem, establishing toolkits and frameworks through evidence based learning from pilots on ground.
The consultation that took place on Monday was attended by more than 140 participants from various stakeholders including different state governments, state agriculture universities, ICAR, agritech start-ups, agri industry, banks, think tank, civil society, and farmer organisations. The consultation came to an end with vote of thanks by Rakesh Kumari Tiwari, Director (Digital Agriculture, DA&FW).
