The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare in India has taken a significant step towards the modernization of agriculture in the country by signing an MoU with Digital Green. The partnership will create a national digital extension platform to bridge the gap between the farmers and extension workers.
The digital platform will host a vast library of curated, multi-format, and multilingual content, which will be accessible to extension workers. This will help them access the necessary information, upskill their network, and support digital agriculture initiatives. The platform will be launched within the next six months and will serve the entire farming community in India.
On occasion, Shri Manoj Ahuja, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare in India (MoA&FW), stated that the proposed national digital platform would improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the extension system by connecting farmers to the digital agriculture ecosystem being established by the government. He emphasized the importance of having a digital capacity for the extension system to help farmers take advantage of digital agriculture and highlighted that it would serve as one of the components of the digital public infrastructure for agriculture recently announced in the Union Budget.
Digital Green, a social enterprise that supports small and marginal farmers, will play a crucial role in the platform’s development. The organization’s primary objective is to enhance the productivity and income of farmers, and this partnership will provide the ideal venue for them to achieve their goals.
The platform will be a digital public good for the farm sector in India. It will complement existing national systems, contributing to the industry’s overall development. The founder of Digital Green, Rikin Gandhi, stated that technology should make a positive difference in the lives of farmers and thanked the Government of India for investing in technology for the future of Indian farming.
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