How digital innovation is transforming agriculture: Lessons from India

In agriculture, Asian countries could be a land of contradictions. The country produces eleven percent1 of total world agriculture and, at a similar time, is host to the world’s largest range of starving folks.2 Agriculture provides livelihoods for concerning 1/2 the Indian population, most of whom are farmer farmers, however a majority of presidency agricultural subsidies ar utilized by medium- and large-scale farmers.3 Parallel to India’s tremendous successes within the modernization of agriculture, farmer farmers are marginalized. the typical debt of a farming house has up quintuple in an exceedingly decade, whereas will increase in farm incomes haven't maintained, and quite three hundred,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide since 1995.4

Given the complexness of Indian agriculture, no single volte-face or technology shift can move the country toward its twin goals of raising financial gain for farmer farmers and continuing to strengthen the aggressiveness of Indian agriculture, however, the digital transformation of agriculture occurring worldwide holds some promise for progress. this text presents reflections on the subject from four leaders in Indian agriculture. they provide insights illustrating basic changes within the structure of the arena and lift questions on whether or not farmer farmers can have the benefit of digital innovation within the same method that larger farmers can.

Ashok Dalwai, World Health Organization has chaired the Committee on Doubling Farmers’ financial gain and is a corporate executive of the National Rainfed space Authority for the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of Asian country, describes India’s move toward associate “income revolution” within the agriculture sector. Purvi Mehta, head of agriculture for Asia at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, explains however digital innovations are supporting moves toward higher incomes for farmer farmers. Rohtash Mal, chairman of EM3 AgriServices, elaborates on challenges and questions on however these innovations are going to be monetized to own an impression on smallholders. Anil Jain, director of faith Irrigation, discusses the requirement to combine digital innovation with physical infrastructure.

We spoke to those leaders as participants in an exceeding panel at the planet Food Prize event in 2018, “Transforming Indian agriculture through digital innovation.”5

Using digital innovation within the ‘income revolution’

Ashok Dalwai is an associate agricultural economist; extra secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Cooperation, and Farmers’ Welfare; and corporate executive of the National Rainfed space Authority. He chaired the committee that submitted the report on doubling farmers’ incomes to the govt. and is functioning on the implementation of the recommendations.

Ashok Dalwai: beginning with a response to the food deficiency within the Sixties, the Asian country has not solely conquered hunger and achieved a standing of food sufficiency, however additionally we tend to are currently at a stage wherever we tend to are able to export any amount of food that the planet might need. So, we’re at a stage wherever the high production leading to surpluses across many subsectors of agriculture and sure segments of agriculture commodities has really resulted in an exceedingly distinct flip of the markets, wherever the availability is quite the demand and farmers aren't able to get sensible costs. The story is that we tend to currently ought to bring associate equilibrium between demand and provide. we want to target markets. we'd prefer to liberalize agriculture, build it a lot of market-friendly so it's the demand and also the costs that become the inducement for the farmers to supply what the worldwide markets demand or the domestic markets demand.

That means we want to require a step off from the revolution, or the White Revolution that refers to exploit, associated utter an “income revolution” that's able to capture the whole worth chain right from analysis up to the stage wherever the farmers are able to notice cash in their pockets. If we would like farmers to become entrepreneurs, then they have to notice internet positive returns. As we tend to try this, we tend to even have learned the teachings of the inexperienced Revolution—that property and resource management practices are important.

This financial gain revolution transition of moving from attention on productivity to financial gain of farmers doesn’t leave the productivity out, though. From achieving higher productivity, you unleash land and resources that may be shifted to higher-value crops like fruits and vegetables, and to farm animals. you would like efficiencies in productivity and reduced prices of production, however, you furthermore might want effective proof of farm manufacture. among this transformation, we tend to ar seeing digital innovation change crucial shifts. The Asian country is incredibly, terribly clear that digital technology is the gift and also the future.

For example, we tend to ar reworking the extension system so our manpower-based system is increased by data and communication technology (ICT). we tend to have a sturdy extension system from the Nineteen Eighties to the Nineties, however, it's gone weak now—manpower extension must be reinforced. With the good use of ICTs, we are able to drop the value of the extension system and build it a lot of economical and effective.

We’re additionally rising our market-led crop insurance theme with digital innovations. We’re mistreatment geotagging, satellite information, and drone technology to verify crop-cutting experiments and improve intelligence on the realm insured. Crop-cutting experiments wont to be manual. we tend to ar currently mistreatment geotagging and imagination to create this information, and thence the believability of knowledge for the insurance agency has gone up considerably. Similarly, space disputes are being settled mistreatment satellite pictures and drone technology. Digital tools are increasing the dependability of the info and creating the settlement of crop insurance quicker and easier.

Marketing in Asian countries is another important structural weakness that's being modified through digital innovation. within the Sixties we tend to create organized wholesale markets known as APMCs, Agricultural manufacture Market Committees; marginal farmers World Health Organization created tiny tons couldn't access them while not reckoning on intermediaries. we've seen over the last fifty years since the APMC came into existence that the traders and also the commission agents operating among a specific APMC had developed monopoly practices—they have cartelized, specified the farmers weren't obtaining the advantages of clear valuation.

Now we tend to area unit constructing a brand new market design whereby we’ll have a foundation of retail agriculture markets (within the proximity of 5 or six kilometers from the farm gate), which is able to feed the wholesale market APMCs, and conjointly link to export markets. however, what's a lot of necessary than increasing the direct reach of those markets is their integration. we are able to just about integrating these physically spread APMCs by exploiting electronic technology. The Electronic National Agriculture Market, eNAM (see box), integrates the physically spread markets, the universe of players will increase, and traders begin to transparently bid for the ample turn out. we've seen that wherever eNAM is employed, cartelization has begun to interrupt down. As a metric of success, the quantity of bids per heap has inflated from one.8 to 4.8. once there's competition, value discovery is healthier and to the advantage of the farmer.