Leverage Agri Stack for better outcomes for farmers; digital push to support over 1,000 agtech startups: Economic Survey

As of 9 February, 2024, 554 agri startups, including 387 women-led startups, are working in the agriculture and allied sector. A further push towards digitisation could support over 1,000 agritech startups, the survey notes.

The Economic Survey has suggested leveraging data and technology via Agri Stack, the centralised database of farmers’ set up by the government, for better targeting of reforms and subsidies for farmers.

As the name suggests, Agri Stack is a central data base for farmers’ information, including their digital identity, holdings and crops under cultivation, and has been named after India Stack.

Currently under pilots across states, Agri Stack will provide the relevant and verified data to identify genuine farmers (Farmer ID), pinpoint the farm location (Farm ID) through geotagging and track what crop they are growing (Crop Survey).

According to the ministry, one district each in six states have been taken for the pilots for creation of unique ID of farmers under the proposed system.

However, the survey notes that it has now been fairly well developed in the major states and can provide the right tool through which the fertiliser subsidy may be better targeted.

"Agri Stack is the digital foundation set up by the government to make it easier to bring various stakeholders together to improve agriculture in India and enable better outcomes and results for the farmers by using data and digital services," it said.

It further adds saying, "This will ensure that the subsidised fertilisers are sold to only those identified as farmers or authorised by the farmer, and the quantity of these fertiliser is fixed based on parameters such as land ownership and prominent crops of the district."

Agri Stack comes under the ambitious “Digital Agriculture Mission 2021-2025” of the Ministry of Agriculture. The launch of the mission was initially planned in 2021 but was delayed due to pandemic. It is likely to come up in the upcoming budget with a dedicated fund allocation, a news report by Indian express says.

The system opens huge opportunity for startups in the space to build stronger use-cases, along with usage of AI, blockchain, remote sensing, robots and drones to generate better data on the Indian agriculture sector.

“The Krishi Decision Support System (Krishi-DSS) is another DPI, which aims to integrate and store in a standardised form relevant geospatial and non-geospatial data, such as remote-sensing data, weather data, soil data, crop signature library, reservoir data, groundwater data, and data pertaining to Government schemes,” the survey suggests.

As per Traxcn data, India is currently home to more than 3,435 agritech startups across segments, of which majority are using emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs) such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and the Internet of Things to support agricultural operations.

“The push towards digital agriculture in India is supported by a robust ecosystem which visualises support of over 1,000 agritech startups in agriculture and allied sectors. As of 9 February, 2024, 554 agri startups, including 387 women-led startups, are working in the agriculture and allied sector,” per the survey.

Leveraging E-Rupi

Further, the survey suggest usage of E-Rupi, a digital payment mechanism, for direct transfer of fertilisers subsidy to farmers.

“E-Rupi, a seamless one-time payment mechanism, can be utilised to provide the necessary subsidy to the farmer directly. This system ensures that the subsidy can only be used through registered PoS (Point of Sale) devices at authorised fertiliser outlets,” the survey mentions.

In case a farmer purchases a quantity of fertilisers that is less than their entitlement, the survey said the remaining subsidy can be used to purchase other agricultural inputs, such as seeds and pesticides, also sold at these outlets.

"Any unused subsidy at the end of the year can also be converted into a small savings instrument in the farmer's name at a post office. This system not only streamlines the subsidy distribution process but also prevents the misuse of subsidies for non-agricultural purposes,” it added.