Based on this propaganda, the Government of India has initiated a unified interface of digital infrastructures that integrate various data, services, and applications including responsible advisories all under an umbrella for the branch of agriculture, called AGRI-STACK.
The idea of Agri-stack or, India Digital Ecosystem for Agriculture (IDEA), was initiated in 2020. The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft to start off a pilot project in 100 villages of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujrat, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh by creating a 'Unified Farmer Service Interface' with the help of its cloud computing services. The GOI will provide every farmer his/her ID, having the required farm and financial information. This will help Microsoft to analyze the farmer's overall farm status - type and condition of soil crops grown, fertilizers and pesticide applications, cattle, poultry, and other livestock statistics, etc. They will provide personalized solutions to help increase yield and boost productivity in the long term.
The ministry then signed 4 more MoUs with Star Agribazaar, Patanjali Organic Research Institute, Amazon Internet Services Private Limited, and Esri India on June 1, 2021. It then expanded its MoUs with Cisco Commerce India Private Limited, Ninjacart, ITC Limited, Jio Platforms Limited NCDEX e Markets Limited.
The government then took public consultations and feedback by releasing a paper titled "The India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture". A brief description of the MoUs has been released to maintain transparency, with common MoUs in many companies.
Some concerns regarding this digital push include privacy breaches and the exclusion of data as the farmer's ID is directly linked to his/her AADHAR. Also making land records based on farmer databases might exclude tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and agricultural laborers. This new step might also lead to commercialization due to the shift in the digital and private sphere. And the main concern is the absence of a Data Protection Legislation, which might lead to the exploitation of a farmer's data by the private data processing entities.
This foundation by the joint collaboration of government and private sector can help empower farmers by having a balanced and holistic approach in every move of these new start.