Digital Innovation will Transform Agriculture: Anna Roy, Senior Advisor, NITI Aayog

Senior Advisor (DM&A, Industry) NITI Aayog, Anna Roysaid that digital innovation will transform Indian agriculture and the focus should be on spreading awareness about the potential of such technologies in the agriculture sector, not only from the user and consumer side but also to the governance and policy side.

Addressing the webinar on Deep Tech for Smart Agriculture in India, Roy said, “The real challenge for us is not the development of technology, but instead the deployment of technology, and we as a nation has to come together for the development and deployment of such deep-techs for the agriculture sector.”

She further mentioned that in this era of Digital Transformation, Deep-Techs are powering Smart Agriculture or Agriculture 4.0, which no longer depends on traditional farming activities. Instead, farmers can leverage Deep-Tech and can grow crops in arid areas, making use of technology and other resources more effectively and efficiently.  Farms and agricultural operations will run very differently, primarily due to advancements in technology such as sensors, devices, machines, and information technology. Future agriculture will use sophisticated deep techs such as AI and ML, robots, temperature and moisture sensors, aerial images, and GPS technology to maximize their output, she added.

Her address was followed by a panel discussion on the topic ‘Deep Tech for Smart Agriculture in India’ which was moderated by Mr Prakash Jayaram, Partner, Digital Government Advisory, EY, and was attended by some of the subject matter experts like Mr Vijaykumar. N. Kale, Additional Commissioner (M&T), Department of Agriculture Cooperation, and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, Dr Anil Rai, Head and Principal Scientist, Centre for Agricultural Bioinformatics, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Government of India, Mr Manav Sehgal, Head of National Cloud Innovation Programs, Amazon Web Services, Mr Nirvan Biswas, Chief Technology Officer, National Bulk Handling Corporation, and Mr Shamik Joshi, Head – Products, Amnex Infotechnologies.