It was chaired by Mr Manoj Ahuja, Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare. Shri
Ahuja referred to the Union Budget speech for 2022-23 which reads out a policy
vision on “Delivery of digital and hi-tech services to farmers with involvement
of public sector research and extension institutions along with private
agritech player and stakeholders of agri value chain”.
Subsequently, Mr Rajeev Chawla, Chief Knowledge Officer (A&FW) shared insights on the
conceptual framework on Public Private Partnership for Digital Agriculture. He
also shared pertinent points on data sharing, technology validation and need of
a sandbox.
Mr Pramod Kumar Meherda,
Joint Secretary (Digital Agriculture, DA&FW) spoke about the perspective of
digital agriculture involving modern technologies which are transforming the
agriculture sector. He also stressed on the role of each stakeholder in
realising the potential of digital agriculture.
From state
perspective, Mr AjitKesari, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Madhya
Pradesh also shared his views on digital agriculture and its potential
stressing the need for a framework for bringing technology into Agriculture.
Taking the session
forward, Shri Purushottam Kaushik, Head, C4IR, WEF-India laid out the plan for
stakeholder consultation. Six consultation groups were formed to deliberate on
PPP Governance, Data, Sandbox, Access to Markets, Access to Finance and Access
to Inputs and Advisories.
The consultation was
attended by more than 140 participants from diverse stakeholders including
different state governments, state agriculture universities, ICAR, agritech
start-ups, agri industry, banks, think tank, civil society, and farmer
organisations.
Mr J. Satyanarayana,
Chief Advisor, WEF-India and Shri Rajeev Chawla provided insights on how inputs
from the consultation will be further deliberated to develop this initiative.
The consultation ended with vote of thanks by Shri Rakesh Kumari Tiwari, ITS,
Director (Digital Agriculture, DA&FW).