India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture ( IDEA ) UPSC

India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture ( IDEA ) | UPSC | Explained | Why In The News ?

Government is in the process of finalising ‘India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA)’ which will lay down a framework for Agristack

GS Paper 3: Indian Agriculture- e-technology in the aid of farmers;Technology missions.

Agricultural GDP: accounts for about 15.9 % of the country’s US$ 2.7 trillion economy (2018-19).
Employment: Provides 49% of total employment in India (2018-19).

About AgriStack:

AgriStack will create “a unified platform for farmers to provide them end to end services across the agriculture food value chain.
It is a collection of technologies and digital databases that focuses on farmers and the agricultural sector.
AgriStack will create a unified platform for farmers to provide them end to end services across the agriculture food value chain.
It is in line with the Centre’s Digital India programme, aimed at providing a broader push to digitise data in India, from land titles to medical records.
The government is also implementing the National Land Records Modernisation Programme (NRLMP).
Under the programme, each farmer will have a unique digital identification (farmers’ ID) that contains personal details, information about the land they farm, as well as production and financial details.
Each ID will be linked to the individual’s digital national ID Aadhaar.
“National Agri Data Stack” that can serve as a foundational data layer on which “agri focussed solutions” will be built.
A ‘national agriculture geo hub’, will provide the required GIS tools and technologies and create and collate farmer and other agriculture data services on GIS platform.

National Digital Agriculture Ecosystem :	To build a National Digital Agriculture Ecosystem, to elevate Indian Agriculture Sector to higher levels of efficiency and productivity To improve the welfare and income of farmers.
Increasing farmer’s income:	Through access to right information at the right time, and from innovative services. It will help in doubling farmers income by 2022.
Ensuring sync between various planning and execution :	Ensuring sync between various planning and execution of policies, programs, and schemes of the Central and State governments, and, also of the private sector and Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs).
Efficient use of Resources :	Efficient use of resources including land, water, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and farm mechanization by providing easier access to information.
To Provide Location Specific Service :	To provide location-specific and personalized extension services across agriculture lifecycle, with simultaneous protection of privacy of personal data.
To Build Capacities :	To build capacities: across the gamut of digital agriculture and precision agriculture.
Promote R & D :	Promotes R&D and Innovations: in agriculture through access to high-quality data.

MOU with Microsoft:

It requires Microsoft to create a ‘Unified Farmer Service Interface’ through its cloud computing services.

MoU with Star Agribazaar:

Mentions ‘farmer data sanitisation’, land profiling and crop estimation using remote sensing along with building a generalised advisory platform for farmers, including mobile applications, for pre- and post-harvest advisories.

MoU with Patanjali:

Talks about developing a mobile application for advising farmers on soil nutrition, accurate quantification on farmer crop and yield, fertiliser recommendations, and training farmers for using this application.

MoU with Amazon Internet Services:

To build a “National Agri Data Stack” that can serve as a foundational data layer on which “agri focussed solutions” will be built.

Esri India MoU:

To discusses how the company will support the ministry in establishing a ‘national agriculture geo hub’, provide the required GIS tools and technologies and create and collate farmer and other agriculture data services on GIS platform.