Indian startups need access to data to tackle technology adoption in agriculture: NITI Aayog Senior Adviser
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: Indian startup ecosystem is robust. By providing them with enabling framework including access to data, compute and market, we will be able to tackle the issue of technology adoption in agriculture sector,” said Anna Roy, Senior Adviser, NITI Aayog, while addressing 2nd edition for the international conference on ‘Artificial Intelligence and Digital applications in Agriculture’ organized by FICCI jointly with German Agribusiness Alliance here on Friday.
Roy said that the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence released by NITI Aayog in June 2018 identifies agriculture as one of the focus areas. The benefits of applying AI in agriculture are immense. “AI in the areas of weather, soil nutrients, pest and disease management, fertigation, market prices, finance and traceability have shown a lot of potential. India’s burgeoning start-up ecosystem has been actively playing its part in disrupting the agriculture sector. Opportunity in agritech exists across the value chain from improving farmers’ access to markets, inputs, data, advisory, credit and insurance,” she added.
She also stated that technology is something which needs to be understood and understood in the context of not only its development but its use. “It is the adoption which will also nurture the development of the technology,” she added. Agriculture along with education and health is one of the sectors where the government plays a critical role in adoption of technology because of the nature of the sector especially in the context of India, emphasized Roy.
Prof Engel Friederike Arkenau, Commissioner for Digitization, Head of Directorate Digital Innovation, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Germany, said that the use of AI and other digital technologies in a transparent way can also be a great help to achieve the overall goal of sustainable agriculture worldwide. “Sustainability is a result of a balanced interplay between economy, environment and social spheres. This needs collaboration, cooperation and co-creation as a very important element,” she added.
Julia Harnal, Chairperson, German Agribusiness Alliance and VP, Public Affairs Agricultural Solutions, BASF SE, said, “Despite the challenging times we are living in, the agriculture sector in India and around the world has proven to be strong. Digital solutions surely are a ‘game changer’ in many aspects. Not only can they support enhancing the resilience of production, but they can also support farmers to produce efficiently and sustainably.”
Ashok Varma, Partner and Leader – Social Sector, PwC India, Knowledge Partner, said, “AI-enabled models in Agriculture and allied sectors are imperative. To transform AI to agriculture intelligence leading to widespread adoption of technology, a 3s strategy is required - scale, skill and service.” Pankaj K Dwivedi, Head of BD and Agronomy, Nurture.farm, said, “Technologies are abundant in agriculture. The incentive to adopt and ability to deploy in the field at scale is the key. We are trying to do this on an integrated platform.” /BI/
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The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores.
As the economy comes to a standstill amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, India’s agriculture sector has taken the baton of economic growth in its hands. The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The government said that self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and for this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers, producers, and exporters to take advantage of the wider international market and increase their income.
The surge in exports has also resulted in increased production in the farm sector by increasing coverage area and productivity. The share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export, the government said.
Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive action plan for the promotion of Agri trade; the twofold approach focuses on boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and action plan for Import Substitution. Recently, the Agriculture sector has witnessed a series of reforms, giving more choices to the farmers to sell their produce at competitive rates.
To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on the export promotion of fast-evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health-conscious food/nutraceuticals, Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realization, Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12% share of their total imports. A product-market matrix has been made containing a list of products of strength that could be expanded in new geographies and a list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.
At the behest of the Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product-specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead Agri exports to new heights. Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once every two months, to discuss recommendations on issues pertaining to the export.
The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organization of the Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO, etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI, etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.
