DIGITALIZATION OF AGRICULTURAL SECTOR- AN ASSESSMENT
OF ITS EFFECT ON FARMERS AND INDIAN ECONOMY
*Ms.Aayushi Sharma, Assistant Professor,
IEHE, Bhopal
**Dr.MahendraSinghai, Professor, IEHE,
Bhopal
Abstract
With an increase in popularizationof internet of
things and digitalization in every sector of economy, agricultural
digitalization is attracting various stakeholders. Digitalization of
agriculture or smart agriculture meansintegration of digital technology in farm
production system which involvesuse of real time data capturing, robotics,
weatheralert, big data and artificial intelligence, satellites etc. that gives
farmer various opportunity to increase productivity by choosing better cropping
patterns, agricultural marketing and finances, enhanced soil quality which will
help Indian economy to meet up the goal of sustaining the growing population of
India.It is much needful to take Indian agriculture to next level with modern
food system of India and this can happen by making our farmers more aware about
these technologies. Besides this the benefit of accessing digital platform for
gaining opportunity and gain is unevenly distributed between farmers who have
digital awareness and accessible and those who does not have any awareness
regarding digitalization. To reduce this digital divide govt of India has
launched many programmes to aware farmers about benefits ofdigitalization. This
research paper we will highlight the benefit of digitalization of agriculture
to farmers as well as to the economy of India and spread awareness among public
about role and need of digitalization of agricultural sector.
Keywords:
Digitalization
of agriculture, Indian economy, Awareness, Opportunities, Digital Technology
Introduction
In
today’s world digitalization is present in every aspect of human life like in
communication, banking, marketing, food supply chain which has made human life easier
and more transparent. In Indiadigitalization was initiated by nationalizing the
banks in 1969 and then slowly law was put in place to make India digitalized.
This technique of digitalization help everyone in profit making from economic
growth.And the combination of digitalization in agriculture sector is boom for
an economy as well as for farmers. Almost 70% of India’s population resides in
rural area, more than 58% of population depends on primary source as their
occupation. This sector contributes almost 18% in total GVA of the economy.
According to Inc42, it is estimated that Indian agricultural sector will
increase to US$ 24 billion by 2025. Increases in population and rise in the
income level of rural and urban areas are the reason which has contributed to
an increase in demand of agricultural product in the nation.
In
line with this, it becomes importance to make our agriculture sector more productive,
efficient and profitable of our farmers by adopting artificial intelligence (AI),
blockchain, drone, geographic information system (GIS) and various e-farming
application.
Digitalization of agriculture is in line with the government of Indians
vision of doubling the farmers income. Government of India has implemented
various plans and policies to make Indian agriculture digitalized for achieving
high efficiency in production on sustainable development. Drone perform number
of functions for improving agricultural operation, for this the GOI has
prepared standard operating procedures (SoP) which is used for sprayingpesticides,
insecticides and fertilizers by drone. India’s national strategy on AI has
signified the importance of implementation of AI in agricultural sector.
Smart farming or using digitalized technology in agriculture like geo-
positing systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, automated system and internet of
things are still an emerging concept in India but attention of Indian farmers
towards digital farming is growing rapidly. Recently Huawei illustrated the
potential of 5G, internet of things and drones on sustainable agriculture.
Huawei demonstrated how technologies could help agriculture of South Africa to
have sustainable future.
Objectives
1- To
know benefits of Digitalization on the farmer
2- Awareness
among farmers about Digitalization of agriculture
3- Impact
of Digital farming on the economic growth of India
4- To
know about various government plans and policies for promoting Digitalization
of agricultural in India
5-
To know barriers to
digital agriculture.
Research
Methodology
This
research study is descriptive in nature based on secondary data. The
information is collected from various secondary sources including research
paper, government websites, government publication and various recognized
websites.
Analysis
a) To
know benefits of Digitalization on the farmer
Digitalization
of agricultural sector plays a very important role in improving the standard of
living of farmers, providing employment opportunities and help farmers to
reduce uncertainties that every farmer, specially whose are dependent on
climatic conditions are facing presently.
Use
of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence
Big
data analytics solve certain problem with the help of predetermined algorithms.
Now a days Artificial intelligence methods are used in agriculture for various
applications. This techniquewith the help of machines enables decisions making
without human intervention.
Source-
Analytics Vidhya
Use of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI)–based
at various stages of agricultural management
GPS
Tractor
Farmers
can see exact location of their tractor. It is enabled with Automatic Area
Management,now tractor can measure the farm land accurately on the basis of
work done by tractor on the mobile app and farmers can trust the measurement
without any doubt. This app also enables the user to keep track on fuel level
and notifies when fuel is about to get over. Such technologies have made
farmers work more convenient and trustable.
When
we talk about Indian farmers, yes, it is too earlyfor Indian farmer. But this
technological advancement is important for future of our wants of Indian
farmers and agriculture. In upcoming years, it will be very useful.
Satellites
Satellite
by GEOSYS’s based on remote sensing, incorporate historical data with real time
data and helps farmers to predict the problems even before it occurs. Which
helps the farmers to protect crop before real symptoms occurs. Precision
farming with the help of sensors, drone helps a lot the farmers by taking the
real time pictures of crop and apply insecticides and pesticides according to
the requirement.
Digital
Marketing
Digital
marketing also formsa significance part of digitalization of agriculture,
special at the time of pandemic. Digital marketing is very helpful for farmers
to reach their customers easily and sell agricultural product at higher price
by reducing marketing cost of agricultural product. Now a days, young farmers
are taking keen interest in adopting digital marketing. Awareness campaigns are
conducted by state and central government to make farmers aware about benefits
about digital marketing.
When
these technologies are implemented in agricultural sector it enables better
management of resources and keep track on farm. With this farmer can analysis
farm in real and short time and can help to work efficiently andeffectively.
This fusion of digitalization and agriculture will provide help for resolving
farmers growth and development. This also help farmers to increase socio-
economic status and thus playa significant role in poverty reduction.
b) Awareness
among farmers about Digitalization of agriculture
To
make any sector digitalized there are some basic conditions which needs to be
fulfilled and therefore its must for farmers to transform traditional agricultural
to digitalized agriculture. These factors include: literacy and ICT education,
connectivity: internet access, mobile subscription, networking, electricity,
proper infrastructure and most important institutional support. Digital
technology access to small farmers can provide direct linkage to suppliers and
consumers, can gather information about various scheme, training programs and
financial and legal supports.
Number of internet connections in rural and
urban areas of India from financial year 2015 to 2022
Source:Statista
From
fig3. We can interpret that internet penetration is increasing year after year
in India, which is a good sign for digitalization in India.
Only
internet penetration is not enough for increasing awareness among the farmers
of India , digital infrastructure is much needed facility. As far as urban
areas are concerned digital infrastructure are well developed but rural areas
lack in this factor, which results in digital divide between urban and rural
areas. Due attention should be given to enhance digital literacy, although penetration
of mobile phone and internet has increased , but an study under IFFCO – Airtel
Kisan Card initiative found very low usage of mobile phones by farmers for
accessing agricultural information.
From
above fig we can observe that digital illiteracy among casual labour is least
and not very much prominent among people engaged in agricultural. Digital
literacy is primary condition to make digitalization more prominent tool among
farmers. And for this government of India has taken various steps to education
our farmers one of them is KrishiVigyanKendras (KVKs) which is not successful
to make famers aware about digitalization. Not only this after COVID19
transaction through UPI has also increased and awareness about UPI transaction
is increasing among farmers also but at slow pace. Digitalization not only
includes use of drones, high tech innovation technology in agriculture, but it
also includes marketing or selling agricultural goods online through digital
platforms. And in today’s era Indian farmers has started using social media
platforms to sell agricultural product.
Awareness among farmers about digitalization is spreading but at slow pace,
thus this needs support of Indian government and private players so that
awareness can be spread among farmers’ special small scale.
c) Steps
taken by government for promoting digital agriculture
Government
act as an important stakeholder in development and adoption of digital
technology among farmers. Which is important catalyser which form planning,
policies and infrastructure. Following are the initiatives taken by government
for promoting digital agriculture.
Earlier, government has taken some
initiatives under e-governance, which was NICNET in 1987 (the national
satellite- based computer network), under this land records was computerised
ensuring that land owner could get computerised copy of landholding, land under
tenancy, updated RORs on demand (records of rights). Project
GyandootandLokvanliin in UP, FRIENDS in Kerala, e-Mitra in Rajasthan, Khajane
in Karnataka etc are example of e-governance.
To
help farmers community, government has rolled out several other recent
initiatives
1. Union
Minister of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, Mr. NarendraTomar, in September
2021 announced to launch Digital Agriculture Mission 2021-2025, signing five
MOUs with Ninjacart, CISCO, Jio Platform Limited, NCDEX e- Market Limited(NeML)
and ITC to run pilot project for advancement of agriculture. This mission aims
to motivate and inspire projects which are based on digital technologies such
as remote sensing, artificial technologies, blockchain, use of drones and robotics
in agriculture
2. National
Agriculture Market (e-NAM):it is pan-India electronic portal with was launched
on 14th April 2016. This portal create a central online platform
which unify all the national agricultural market for discovering price of
agricultural commodity by creating a network between APMC, private market,
market yards and unregulated market. It aims to promote effective performance
of the market by streamlining market and transactions and make one uniform
market for all. It helps farmers to sell agricultural product without
interference of middle man and brokers.
3. The
government launched Meghdoot mobile application which provide weather
forecasting relating to humidity, rainfall, temperature, speed and direction of
wind, ways to take care of livestock and crop.
4. mkisan-
As internet penetration is low in rural area, text messaging in native language
of farmer can reduce the barriers of digital divide. mkisanis a SMS portal which enable government to provide
information, advice and services to farmers by SMS in their language, according
to agricultural practice and location. With the help of this portal large
number of farmers and every farm household can be covered in rural area, and
bringing small and marginal farmers in level playing field.
5. With
the help of The World Economic Forum's Artificial
Intelligence for Agricultural Innovation (AI4AI) , Government of Telangana
launched SaaguBaagu,making Telangana first state to implement a
structure for intensify technologies which can improve the productivity,
sustainability and efficiency in agricultural sector. As on January 2023,
around more than 7000 farmers have enrolled with this pilot project, farmers
are getting support in form of AI technologies, which includes monitoring crop
health, testing of soil, testing of sowing quality, predictions and estimations
and finding new customers and suppliers in different geographical area.
6. In
order to provide farmers with information of climate change, the Telangana
government and UNDP ( United
Nations Development Programme) currently introduced data in climate resilient
agricultural(DiCRA) which differentiate between land which are extremely
vulnerable to climate change and those that are climate resistant through
remote sensing and algorithms.
7.
Soil Health Card portal-
Web portal and smartphone based application which is developed and designed by
MeitY(Ministry of Information and Technology) and NIC, provides information about
application and dosage of fertilizer and pesticides and information on nutrient
status of various types of soil.
8.
Realizing
importance of technology in agricultural sector, government launched “ Kisan
Suvidha” app which has almost 100 million users registered and taking
advantage. This app provide weather information of current day as well as of
next five days, suppliers, ways to protect plants, market selling price and
agro- advisories.
d)
Barriers to
Digital agriculture
Besides having potential and multiple advantages to
farmers from digitalization of agriculture, there are some barriers which needs
to be addressed:
1.
Small scale
farmers might not have the resources needed for getting digital technology, nor
they have resources to learn about this technology, might be left behind. This
results in slow rate of adoption of digital technology by small scale farmers
2.
To employ
digital technology on farm land it requires continues and reliable electricity
supply. Power connection is most important source for digital connectivity. But
continuous power supply in rural arears is still dreams for many
3.
Use of
remote sensing and artificial intelligence based smart technology in
agriculture had made the data of farmers more vulnerable for cyber acts.
Leakage of such information can through an unauthorized access can become a
major challenge and threat for farmers
4.
Delay in
updating and developing agricultural content timely which hamper digital
transformation of agricultural.
5.
Other
challenges of Indian digitalization include ownership issues between government
data generated and private data generation, inadequacy in public private partnership,
lack of awareness and training among farmers regarding digital technologies.
6.
Credit
access challenge- Most of the farmers don’t have formal credit history
therefore it become difficult for them to access any form of formal financial
access beyond KCC, therefore digitalization finds it difficult to penetrate in
rural areas
7.
Landholding
among Indian farmers is much lesser than from other foreign countries farmers.
If we want digitalization in agriculture to be scalable to majority of farmers,
then it has to be customized according to Indian farmers.
e)
Impact of
digitalization on Indian economy
The adoption of
sensor based technologies and cloud
supported smart
applications in agriculture has unleashed
opportunities for
adversaries to orchestrate cyber attack
The adoption of
sensor based technologies and cloud
supported smart
applications in agriculture has unleashed
opportunities for
adversaries to orchestrate cyber attack
The adoption of
sensor based technologies and cloud
supported smart
applications in agriculture has unleashed
opportunities for
adversaries to orchestrate cyber attack
In India almost 70%
of population lives in rural area, and about more than 58% of Indian population
relies on primary source for their occupation. The share of agriculture and its
allied industries in total GVA is around 18%. This has although improved to
20.2 % in year 2020-21 and 18.8 % in 2021-22.
Percentage Share of GVA of Agriculture and Allied Sector to
Total GVA
Source: economic
survey 2021-22
*As per 1st
advance estimates of national income
·
Total agricultural export
recorded during 2021-22, USD 49.6 billion with an 20% increase from USD 41.3%
in 2020-21.
·
With an increase in
technological intervention in agriculture sector, organic sector has seen an
unusual growth of CAGR 10% in year 2016 to 2021 and will reach 75,000 cr by
2025 from 2,700 in 2015
·
According to research by NITI
Ayog on artificial intelligence in agriculture, the report says that
agriculture will increase at rate of 4% or higher and will maintain an annual
growth rate of 8%- 10%. NITI Ayog also predicted that artificial intelligence
in agriculture would be worth USD 2.6 billion by 2025 and will rise at pace of
22.5 % CAGR.
·
Digitalization has also helped
in growth of Agrifood startups, the investment has gone up from USD 1.66
billion from 2013-17 to USD 4.6 billion in the year ending 31st
March 2022 and overtook China and become Asia- Pacific’s biggest funded
agrifood ecosystem.
Suggestions
Digitalization
of agriculture in India face many challenges, but one of the main challenges is
segregation of land which complicate data collection gathering. Holder of small
farm land hesitates in using these technologies because of cost inefficiency. Thus,
digitalization should be customised in application to small farmers in India, and
later can be scaled up and made available to all farmers. When we talk in
Indian context financial estimate about cost of digitalized technologies per
unit land , per individual and return of investment and saving from these
technologies are not available yet, which make it difficult to evaluate from
economic aspects point of view. So, first government to India should try to
gather financial estimates to make digital policies for farmers more beneficial.
Thus
to make digitalization successful in India one must focus on – lowering the
cost of technology, according to Dalwai committee report an average Indian
farmers earns ₹ 77976 per annum
this figure itself tell about financial circumstance among Indian farmers.
Thus, technologies should be affordable, that will be appealing to farmers. To
make digital technologies available to all farmers, government should focus on
direct income support to farmers. These schemes require large digital database
of farmers so that scheme could be implemented in short period of time.Further,
private sector can also play a key role in facilitating e commerce and other
platform to modify food supply chain of farmers. Long term investments are
required from both public and private sector to boost up digital connection in
rural India. Additionally, research work related to digital agriculture should
be scaled up by promoting agriculture academic institutes, FPOs, NGOs, Agri-startups
and agriprenuers.
Conclusion
Hence,we
can say that, introduction of digital technology in agriculture will bring
desired result in this sector which includes increase in production and lower
cost of production, elevate socio economic status of farmers, lesser chemical
application, improve price and ultimately promote sustainable development of
ecosystem. Digitalization has great potential to resolve the problems of
farmers as well as help Indian economy to sustain growing population. Now only
this a major change in agricultural sector will take up sustainable food system
which will help in meeting up UN Sustainable Development Goals. Its success
required better implementation of policies by government along with significant
public private partnership. Finally, digital infrastructure like internet
connectivity, mobile phone and adoption and continuous use of digital
technology by farmer etc. plays an
significance role in digitalization of agriculture. Specially people living in
rural areas still do not have access to basic facilities. This can result in
delay in digitalization of this sector. Policy maker must look after rapid
creation of digital infrastructure in rural area and development of
AgriTechstartups which will help in rapid development of technologies for
farmers in India.
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·
Important
Challenges of Indian Agriculture Sector
.