Big News! Agriculture Ministry Signs MoUs with 5 Firms including Jio, ITC & more

Centre has launched a Digital Agriculture Mission for 2021-2025, based on newer technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and IoT.

Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, signed 5 Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with big private corporations to advance digital agriculture. According to the Ministry, the MoUs were inked at Krishi Bhavan on Tuesday.

These corporations include ITC Limited, Jio Platforms Limited, CISCO, Ninjacart, and NCDEX e-markets Limited (NeML). Such initiatives are taken to enhance farmers' revenue and safeguarding their crops production.

As per reports, Union Agriculture Minister, Tomar said, "Based on these pilot projects, farmers will be able to make informed decisions on what crop to grow, what variety of seed to use, and what best practices to adopt to maximize the yield." He further said that farmers will also be capable to take decisions on whether to sell the products or to store them. "They can even make the decision on when and where to sell, as well as at what value."

Digital Agriculture Mission (Latest Technologies):

Digital Agriculture Mission (2021 -2025), based on the latest technologies like AI, Geographic Information systems technology (GIS), Blockchain Technology, Remote Sensing, and usage of Drones and Robotics, and many more, as per the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

As per the statement by the ministry, digital agriculture also incorporates public and commercial participants in the agricultural production of inputs and services, as well as logistics.

Connectivity, quality of data, information management, standard protocols, security, and privacy, as well as fostering innovation, must all be taken into consideration during developing a digital ecosystem for agriculture.

Furthermore, the ministry stated that the Federated Farmers' Database system will be connected by land registration of farmers from throughout the country, and from that, a unique Farmer ID will be generated.

With the assistance of this database system, all farmers having information on all privileges and supports of various Central & State Government schemes may be maintained, and this database could be utilized to get information in the future to deliver many benefits to the farming community. The database now includes information on approximately 5.5 crore farmers of the nation.