Day 32 – Q 4.With the help of suitable examples, illustrate the potential of e-technology in realising the goal of doubling farmers’ income.

4. With the help of suitable examples, illustrate the potential of e-technology in realising the goal of doubling farmers’ income.   

उपयुक्त उदाहरणों की सहायता से, किसानों की आय दोगुनी करने के लक्ष्य को साकार करने में ई–तकनीक की क्षमता का वर्णन करें।

Introduction:

Agriculture’s importance in India is difficult to overemphasize. It accounts for about 13 percent of the country’s GDP and employs about 45 percent of its workforce. On average, however, the yield in Indian agriculture is 10 to 50 percent lower than in other Asian countries. Digital applications can play a critical role in improving yields — as well as reducing costs and increasing the market value of crops — by making it easier for farmers to obtain finance, optimize agricultural inputs, and increase direct access to markets. Digital applications promise to play a significant role in government’s quest to double farmers’ incomes by 2022.

Body

Potential of e-technology in realizing the goal of doubling farmer’s income.

Doubling farmers’ incomes, which include three themes:

• Enabling digital financing and insurance payouts by facilitating consolidated information, credit scoring models, and yield forecasting models using satellite and weather data.

Example: Digital applications are making crop insurance system faster and more accurate

• Ministry of Agriculture

• • Central government launched a Kisan pilot programme in 2015 to see if satellite and drone-based imaging and other geospatial technology could produce timely and accurate crop-yield data. Study is also being conducted to evaluate a remote sensing based index for index-based insurance
  • Pilot study carried out in rice and cotton fields in four districts during the kharif season in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. It was also conducted during the 2015–16 rabi season in eight districts in the same states to assess crop yields of rice, wheat, and sorghum

• Karnataka

• • SAMRAKSHANE is an end-to-end e-governance solution to handle crop insurance under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) programme and the Modified Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (MWBCIS)

• Introducing precision agriculture using data analytics, with an integrated agricultural data platform across all existing and new data sources (such as the 158.7 million Soil Health Cards dispatched). Based on pilots, this initiative could raise farm productivity by 15 to 20 percent.

Example: Real-time agricultural data can help to increase yields and decrease costs

Soil Health Card

• Ministry of Agriculture launched soil health card in 2015
• Scheme tests soil samples to encourage judicious use of inputs such as fertilizer
• mKisan
• Ministry of Agriculture launched mKisan in 2013 to increase the information available to farmers on crucial aspects of farming such as weather & soil health

• mKRISHI

• mKRISHI is a technology platform for Indian farmers
• Tata Consultancy Services designed it to enable farmers in remote areas to access real-time agricultural information, best practices, and market and weather information
• The service, started in 2013, plans to reach 2.5 million farmers and generate ~$150 million in revenue by 2023

• MyAgriGuru (Mahindra)

• Mahindra launched a web/mobile-based digital platform called MyAgriGuru in February 2017 to create an integrated agri-community
• The app connects experts and farmers and enables exchange of ideas and information to create an empowering agriculture ecosystem in the country

• Microsoft

• Microsoft started a pilot with Hyderabad-based International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (a UN agency) in 2016 to build a sowing solution to help farmers to predict the right time for sowing crops
• Microsoft developed a sowing app to conveniently provide sowing information to farmers

• Implementing online agricultural marketplaces linked to a unified, nationwide market with a set of institutional market facilitators and common assaying and grading standards. Such e-marketplaces could cover 40 to 60 percent of agricultural produce sold in India, leading to 15 percent farmers’ price gains, as demonstrated by pilots. Together, these changes could add $50 billion to $70 billion of economic value in 2025.

Example: Technology is bringing transparency to India’s agricultural markets

• Karnataka Government and NCDEX Spot Exchange

• The Karnataka state government and the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) started Rashtriya e-Market Services to encourage competition in agricultural markets and help farmers receive better prices for their crops

• eNAM

• Ministry of Agriculture in 2015 launched eNam, the electronic National Agriculture Market, to connect the 7,000 APMC mandis across India to promote transparency in agricultural markets

• Buyer Seller Platform

• Ministry of Agriculture launched Buyer Seller platform / mKisan for farmers to receive local buyer prices over SMS
• Connect farmers with buyers (farmer producer organisations, exporters, traders, and processors)

Conclusion 

Most of the development initiatives and policies for agriculture are implemented by the States. States invest much more than the outlay by the Centre on many development activities, like irrigation. Progress of various reforms related to market and land lease are also State subjects. Therefore, it is essential to mobilise States and UTs to own and achieve the goal of doubling farmers’ income. If concerted and well-coordinated efforts are made by the Centre and all the States and UTs, the Country can achieve the goal of doubling farmers’ income by the year 2022.