Significance of Digital India programme to farmers to improve farm productivity and income

Significance of Digital India programme to farmers to improve farm productivity and income

This new era of Digital India is also a new era for Indian Agriculture. Indian farmers have been at the forefront of adopting digital tools that will modernize agriculture and ensure food security for its growing population. A well-planned and well-implemented scheme, Digital India Programme, can help improve farm productivity and income to the small and marginal farmers in India. This will directly contribute to the finding of solutions to rural poverty and sustainable livelihoods.

How Digital India programme improves farm productivity and farmers’ income?

Better prices: Smartphone penetration is key to this as by acquiring a smartphone, farmers can access the online prices and directly sell their produce to any private buyers or market. The government is laying down of optical fiber network in the rural areas which will help farmers to access information about best prices and better market development in their own areas.

Virtual ecosystem: The Government’s initiative of “Digital India” is well aligned to the objectives of improving the socio-economic status of farmers. It is important as technology will potentially make farming more profitable and sustainable for the farmer. Adoption of digitalized systems can help in providing timely and localized information and services, thereby enhancing the quality of farmers. These systems will provide real-time data regarding soil variability, moisture and nutrient levels, rainfall variability, the timing of planting and harvesting, market price volatility to farmers. Thereby making agriculture profitable and sustainable.

Tailored recommendations: Digital India will allow us to develop tailored recommendations for each farmer, based on crop sown, real-time observed weather, and projected market prices.

Data: The benefits of digital technology can be harnessed to make Indian agriculture more efficient and increase farmers’ incomes. The use of big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence-based crop advisories can help farmers increase the value of their output.

Direct cash transfer: Direct cash transfers can simplify and streamline the subsidy delivery system. Data collection using Aadhaar will help to validate subsidy claims, and this will directly benefit the farmers in terms of increased farm productivity and lowered debt burden. Farmers’ income can be raised by providing timely payments to them, and not just transferring subsidies to their accounts.

Social media usage: Digital Green uses digital and social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to disseminate videos and raise awareness of best management practices for agriculture. Digital Green also uses participatory videos that have farmers explain best management practices to other farmers. This approach is more cost effective than traditional extension services as farmers trust other farmers.

Savings: Farmers often face challenges in accessing credit. This is particularly true in rural areas. Digital technology can enable ‘micro’ and ‘mesh’ lending models that help farmers save money, sell products directly to buyers, borrow when needed, and develop a value chain for farm income.

Steps taken by the government:

e-NAM: It is envisaged as a common platform for sellers and buyers to trade in agricultural commodities. eNAM will provide a common national market to facilitate price discovery, aggregation of demand, provide market transparency, and better access to credit for the agriculture sector. The initiative aims to help farmers get better prices for their produce through pooling together of fragmented demand.

BharatNet: BharatNet serves as a platform wherein the fiber optic cables are laid connecting the panchayats, municipalities and other local administrative units within the state. It's a unified network that is secure to use and firewalls are set up for connections between departments.

National mission on agricultural extension and Technology: The National Mission on Agricultural Extension and Technology (NMAT) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare, is a multi-ministerial programme of Govt. of India that aims to strengthen the agricultural extension system to enable delivery of appropriate technology and improved agronomic practices to farmers.

AgriMarket app: AgriMarket App shares price information with farmers on their mobile phones. The application is designed to facilitate easy access to market prices by providing crop-specific price information. The application will help in rationalizing farm-level supply and demand gaps between consumers and farmers.

Bharat Nirman: Bharat Nirman has helped the government to achieve its goal of providing telecommunication facilities to all panchayats (villages) in the country. Bharat Nirman has also helped in the development of new telecom service areas.

e-governance efforts: e-Governance efforts of the government focus on transforming the agriculture sector to increase productivity and profitability. 3 portals viz. farmer portal, Kisan call center, and mKisan portal are in operation to help farmers make informed decisions for efficient farming under varying agro-climatic conditions. Under the eGovernance project, soil health card software has been standardized and web-based software developed to provide integrated nutrient management decision support services to the farmers.