The Digital Agricultural Mission in India – How Technology Can Make It a Success

Though the IT and the incoming semiconductor revolution hope to change things, agriculture and related industries are together still one of the main pillars of the Indian economy. Launched with a budget of 2817 crores, the Digital Agricultural Mission hopes to build on the success of the Green Revolution in Punjab and extend it to other states too.

The Digital Agriculture Mission ‘seeks to enable a robust digital agriculture ecosystem in the country to drive innovative farmer-centric digital and space-tech solutions.’ The mission is also expected to create direct and indirect employment opportunities for around 250,000 trained local youth and support roles such as Krishi Sakhis (agricultural assistants).

And the success of the Digital Agricultural Missions India hinges upon implementing digital public infrastructure. The success of Digital Public Infrastructures in other sectors, such as health, education, finance, etc., relays confidence in its potential for similar transformative impacts in the agriculture sector.

What are the Key Objectives of the Digital Agriculture Mission?

1. To create a digital ecosystem that supports the progress of farmers nationwide.
2. To improve the transparency and efficiency of government-led initiatives.
3. To help the government make informed policy decisions.
4. To encourage the growth of aggrotech’s through private and public partnerships.

7 Ways How Technology Can Empower the Digital Agricultural Mission

With the growth of 5G technology and advancements in IoT and robotics, the chances of the digital agricultural mission becoming a success are also increased. Let us now see how.

1. Data Collection and Analysis Software

Analyzing large datasets to forecast crop yields, identify potential disease outbreaks, and recommend optimal planting times. Collection data on weather will also help farmers prepare for events that may affect their crop yield, such as flood and drought. This will help farmers be ready for long-term challenges or even immediate disasters. Now let us look at something that supports day-to-day agricultural work.

2. Precision Farming

Using GPS technology coupled with 5G and IoT, it is now possible to map the irrigation fields and then sprinkle the water at the right intervals depending on the sunlight and minimize wastage. It can also spray the right amount of fertilizers and pesticides as well taking soil characteristics into the picture. Precision farming technology and the training that can be provided on it will be very useful for farmers, who can then make use of such training to improve their crop yields.

3. Crop Selection and Advisory from Experts

You may want to grow a particular kind of fruit or vegetable but how productive will such an effort be? You will need to rely on the knowledge provided by experts. The Digital Agriculture Mission will help bring together the knowledge from the top bio-scientists and agricultural scientists in India to help you decide which crop would be best suited to the land you are devoting your time to as a farmer.

4. Pest and Disease Management

AI-powered image analysis can help in detecting diseases in plants at a very early stage and warn the farmer accordingly and even suggest what pesticides to use to treat the disease. Not just this, it can also suggest follow-up treatments at later stages using an intelligent cloud application and analyzing the progress of the disease in a sequence of images even after corrective measures were taken. Additionally, this can also help farmers in securing crop insurance in time too. This of course does not replace an actual agricultural expert.

5. Market Conditions and Price Forecasting

Thanks to applications, farmers will also have access to the market conditions and help with pricing their product and even securing a fair price for their products from middlemen. Such applications will allow everyone involved in the agricultural network to get accurate information on pricing and other market conditions, so they can act accordingly.

6. Supply Chain Management Tools

This is more relevant for the middlemen and for supermarkets and resellers where the produce is tracked and can be traced anywhere from farm to market and to the grocery stores, without any loss in quality or quantity of produce. But in a scenario where farmers directly get the income for their produce or as they say, in the case of farmer’s markets, such supply chain visibility tools may be relevant for farmers also.

7. Digital Platforms and Training

By making use of mobile apps and digital platforms, it is possible to train farmers in several techniques in agriculture, like practices in cultivation, application of fertilizers and pesticides and even how to manage the sensors and other software that will empower them to become cost-conscious and highly intelligent farmers. Such training too can happen under the auspices of one of the initiatives undertaken by the Digital Agricultural Mission (DAM).

Closing Words

The Digital Agricultural Mission (DAM) was undertaken with one clear goal in mind, ensuring the welfare of farmers by making use of digital public infrastructure backed by the Government of India and backed by the support of private institutions, if need be. And with the right technology, support and training, it is possible to revolutionize the agricultural sector and bring on several green revolutions all over India.

This will ensure we have an export surplus of very high quality after tending to the needs of every citizen of our great nation. The farmer of today will transform into a more sophisticated, intelligent, cost-conscious and prudent version of himself and even youth will be encouraged to join the next green revolution. If the first involved man and machine, the second will be man, AI and machine.

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