NITI Aayog senior adviser Ms Anna Roy today said that Indian start-up ecosystem is robust, adding, by providing them with enabling framework including access to data, compute and market, we will be able to tackle the issue of technology adoption in agriculture sector.

Addressing the 2nd edition of the International Conference on ‘Artificial Intelligence & Digital applications in Agriculture’, organized by FICCI, jointly with German Agribusiness Alliance, Ms Roy said that the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence released by NITI Aayog in June 2018 identifies agriculture as one of the focus areas. The benefits of applying AI in the agriculture are immense.

“AI in the areas of weather, soil nutrients, pest and disease management, fertigation, market prices, finance and traceability have shown a lot of potential. India’s burgeoning start-up ecosystem has been actively playing its part in disrupting the agriculture sector. Opportunity in agritech exists across the value chain from improving farmers’ access to markets, inputs, data, advisory, credit and insurance,” she added.

Ms Roy also stated that technology is something which needs to be understood and understood in the context of not only its development but its use.

“It is the adoption which will also nurture the development of the technology,” she added.

Agriculture along with education and health is one of the sectors where government plays a critical role in adoption of technology because of the nature of the sector especially in the context of India, emphasized Ms Roy.

Prof Dr Engel Friederike Arkenau, Commissioner for Digitization, Head of Directorate Digital Innovation, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Germany said that the use of AI and other digital technologies in a transparent way can also be a great help to achieve the overall goal of sustainable agriculture worldwide.

“Sustainability is a result of a balanced interplay between economy, environment and social spheres. This needs collaboration, cooperation and cocreation as a very important element,” she added.

Mr T R Kesavan, Chairman, FICCI National Agriculture Committee & Group President, TAFE said that AI is expected to play a key role in the growth of Indian agriculture relieving the sector from stressful conditions and catalysing shift towards data-driven farming.

“Digital solutions including AI has potential to shift the country toward deploying best technology interventions in meeting its dual goals of raising income for smallholder farmers as well as continuing to strengthen the competitiveness of Indian agriculture through data-driven decision making,” he added.

Ms Julia Harnal, Chairperson, German Agribusiness Alliance & VP, Public Affairs Agricultural Solutions, BASF SE said, “Despite the challenging times we are living in, the agriculture sector in India and around the world has proven to be strong. Digital solutions surely are a ‘game changer’ in many aspects. Not only can they support enhancing the resilience of production, but they can also support farmers to produce efficiently and sustainably.”