R. Goswami, S. Dutta, Sanchayeeta Misra, S. Dasgupta, S. Chakraborty, Kousik Mallick, A. Sinha, V. Singh, T. Oberthür, S. Cook, K. Majumdar
{"title":"Whither digital agriculture in India?","authors":"R. Goswami, S. Dutta, Sanchayeeta Misra, S. Dasgupta, S. Chakraborty, Kousik Mallick, A. Sinha, V. Singh, T. Oberthür, S. Cook, K. Majumdar","doi":"10.1071/CP21624","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Agriculture is central to the Indian economy and suffers from widespread operational inefficiencies that could be corrected by the use of digital agriculture technologies (DA). We review and synthesise available literature concerning digital agriculture in India and anticipate its transformative potential in the coming decade. Although the initial growth of DA was more conspicuous in the downstream sectors and high-value crops, reaching smallholder farmers upstream is slowly emerging despite significant obstacles such as small fragmented holdings, inadequate data infrastructure and public policy, and unequal access to digital infrastructure. Agri-tech enables innovation at many locations within value chains, and a steady shift is occurring in change from individual farms to the whole value chain. Technology in the sector is progressing from information and communication technology-based solutions to Internet of Things and artificial intelligence–machine learning-enabled services. India’s public policy shows signs of a longstanding investment and collaboration in the sector, with an explicit focus on data infrastructure development. We find smallholder predominance, diversity in production systems, the predominance of commodity crops, proximity to urban markets, and public policy as the major factors of DA’s success in India. A stocktake of the available technologies and their applications by the public sector, tech giants, information technology leaders and agri-food tech startups in India strongly indicates a digital transformation of Indian agriculture. However, given the federal structure of governance and agriculture being a state (province) subject, we need to wait to see how DA policies are rolled out and taken up across the country.","PeriodicalId":51237,"journal":{"name":"Crop & Pasture Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2023-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Crop & Pasture Science","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1071/CP21624","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"AGRICULTURE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT Agriculture is central to the Indian economy and suffers from widespread operational inefficiencies that could be corrected by the use of digital agriculture technologies (DA). We review and synthesise available literature concerning digital agriculture in India and anticipate its transformative potential in the coming decade. Although the initial growth of DA was more conspicuous in the downstream sectors and high-value crops, reaching smallholder farmers upstream is slowly emerging despite significant obstacles such as small fragmented holdings, inadequate data infrastructure and public policy, and unequal access to digital infrastructure. Agri-tech enables innovation at many locations within value chains, and a steady shift is occurring in change from individual farms to the whole value chain. Technology in the sector is progressing from information and communication technology-based solutions to Internet of Things and artificial intelligence–machine learning-enabled services. India’s public policy shows signs of a longstanding investment and collaboration in the sector, with an explicit focus on data infrastructure development. We find smallholder predominance, diversity in production systems, the predominance of commodity crops, proximity to urban markets, and public policy as the major factors of DA’s success in India. A stocktake of the available technologies and their applications by the public sector, tech giants, information technology leaders and agri-food tech startups in India strongly indicates a digital transformation of Indian agriculture. However, given the federal structure of governance and agriculture being a state (province) subject, we need to wait to see how DA policies are rolled out and taken up across the country.
期刊介绍:
Crop and Pasture Science (formerly known as Australian Journal of Agricultural Research) is an international journal publishing outcomes of strategic research in crop and pasture sciences and the sustainability of farming systems. The primary focus is broad-scale cereals, grain legumes, oilseeds and pastures. Articles are encouraged that advance understanding in plant-based agricultural systems through the use of well-defined and original aims designed to test a hypothesis, innovative and rigorous experimental design, and strong interpretation. The journal embraces experimental approaches from molecular level to whole systems, and the research must present novel findings and progress the science of agriculture.
Crop and Pasture Science is read by agricultural scientists and plant biologists, industry, administrators, policy-makers, and others with an interest in the challenges and opportunities facing world agricultural production.
Crop and Pasture Science is published with the endorsement of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Australian Academy of Science.