Reiterating the words of his predecessor Radha Mohan Singh, the new union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in Rajya Sabha that Modi govt is committed to doubling farmers’ income by adopting new measures.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha Tomar said the Government has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee to examine issues relating to doubling of farmers’ income and recommend a strategy to achieve doubling of farmers’ income in real terms by the year 2022.
“The committee has, inter-alia, appreciated the role of Digital Technology, which can play a transformational role in modernizing and organizing how rural India performs it’s agricultural activities. The technologies include Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, Block chain Technology, Internet of Things etc. The deployment of technology is very important to make schemes of the Ministry successful”, Minister said.
Major technology interventions include Development of Kisan Suvidha mobile application to facilitate dissemination of information to farmers on the critical parameters. With market information, Farmers are better informed about markets to sell produce.
The Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) has also compiled more than 100 mobile apps developed by ICAR, State Agricultural Universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendras and uploaded on its website, Minister said.
These mobile apps developed in the areas of crops, horticulture, veterinary, dairy, poultry, fisheries, natural resources management and integrated subjects, offer valuable information to the farmers, including package of practices, market prices of various commodities, weather related information, advisory services, etc.
Use of space technology has also being implemented in several areas such as Forecasting Agricultural Output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land-based Observations project, etc, the Minister concluded.