New Delhi: Indian startup ecosystem is robust. 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,” said Anna Roy, Senior Adviser, NITI Aayog, while addressing 2nd edition for the international conference on ‘Artificial Intelligence and Digital applications in Agriculture’ organized by FICCI jointly with German Agribusiness Alliance here on Friday.

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 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.

She 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 the government plays a critical role in adoption of technology because of the nature of the sector especially in the context of India, emphasized Roy.

Prof 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 co-creation as a very important element,” she added.

Julia Harnal, Chairperson, German Agribusiness Alliance and 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.”

Ashok Varma, Partner and Leader – Social Sector, PwC India, Knowledge Partner, said, “AI-enabled models in Agriculture and allied sectors are imperative. To transform AI to agriculture intelligence leading to widespread adoption of technology, a 3s strategy is required - scale, skill and service.” Pankaj K Dwivedi, Head of BD and Agronomy, Nurture.farm, said, “Technologies are abundant in agriculture. The incentive to adopt and ability to deploy in the field at scale is the key. We are trying to do this on an integrated platform.” /BI/