Progress in agriculture

January 2020. for the first time the 107 year story of the dan Science Congress a farmers Science Congress was organised triebrate and promote innovations emerging from indian tarms and village ife The idea was to showcase the nala major source of innovation a vital and important as the urban in india specialy, unce around two-third of the population and 70 percent of the workforce lives redefining farm machinery or weather montang To fast-track the process of innovation in rural technology cold chains, and warehousing
india, the Indian Council of Agricultural Res (ICAR) it setting up a Farmers Innovation Fund and innovation Centres across villages in the country to tap into the myriad innovations that are emerging from India's village economy. Such centres, and the Fund, would support a range of innovative work including further development in the forty-five sinds or types of organic farming that have been designed by farmers in the country in different locations. Such breakthrough work sho includes research in nano-pesticides and neo-fertilers to support organic farming CAR is also supporting more than one hundred start ups in processing and marketing rural produce and has brought in the emerges of more than five thousand young men and women to work on uch projects.

According to latest data Startup india, the startup initiative of the indian government, there are more than five thousand six hundred agricultural startups in the country These include everything from processing and marketing companies to firms specialising in tech and then working on As the use of new technolges e artificial Intelligence flows in, new ideas of combining hod of misting Technologies to create a unifie incia Agricultural Platform (MAP) is emerging As India A, a collaboration bebees the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technologs, the National e-Goverance Divisam, and the apes (7) information technology body Nasscom has no "There is a visible need for an open, Integrating platform, that democrather access to Agri information, credit, insurance and markets incubates innovative business models and nattes better decision making The Indian Agricultural Platform (AP) created by the eco-stem, governed by the Government is entioned as a nabing hamework of Data and Services (applications

As an example of what can be achieved in anna Al describes a farmer logging in the AP platform (securely using rea scan, and the platform, using the digital Aadhaar identification system, polotation and ither such a metrices ate to evaluate the credit potential of the farme connect the farmer to state and private credit agencies and facilitate the loan-the entre process completed digitally without the agriculturist having travel to various offices to pitch their case". An AP brings together at the benefits of anthical intelligence and data analyncs the tactical and strategic decision making leveraging multi-year muth-source information, aggregated from the farms to state/national levels it processes hag dets flows, and using tools like videa, vain, vernacular relation, faceate farmer engagement. The platform hosted in a Cloud and reduces duplication by repoting data sources and a vast backend of new and existing applications Government's Nam, TC's e-Choupat NCDEKY NEML APEDAS Tracelet etc. related to logistics, weather, supply chain, warehousing assaying recommendationenges

in esence, a platform the the Aely to be the new fronter in fuelling rural innoiation because it will transform the use of technology in agriculture like Aadhaar changed the ideation process in Be country, and Us (United Payments incface) transformed digital payments An IAF is ely assist in everything from real-me purchase and sale of raw material, produce and equipment, provide real-time relevant information such as weather patterns and track timeline of the comsumption and production history of the farmes, and make the cultivation process more data-driven and accurate Schuld hep farmers scale name systemane fashion than curant processes Whether it is in the use of solar powerprovide electricity to rural households off-grid, or the use of watergy to filter water in wages, or Hovel ways of warehousing and weather manting rural innovation is being down by a host of exciting entrepreneurial ventures the country in December 2020, countrywide grheckathon led by Mister for Agriculture and Tarmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar saw participation from more than one thousand startups, with more than three thousand ideas of rural innovation, and inputs from more than one hundred mentors. The two-month-long event was the biggest such programme in the history of indian agriculture" Twenty-four best innovations were awarded cash prizes of one lash rupees each and the winning preference for incubaconpport, pre-seed and seed-stage funding of the lakh rupees and twenty-five lakh rupees respectively and the opportunity of helt trial and access to technology to There is a new energy in the Indian sauntryside as the mindset about the rural is transforming swiftly in the country the old rural urban divides being bridged as more and more people look beyond major cities to hum their dream of a better, more wholetic and healthy life The lockdowns from the COVID 19 pandemic have abo further propelled this reagination as many" escaped the confines of the city to work from areas and discovered novations waiting to be unfolded. Even inders at major businesses the Sridhar Vembu at Zoho Corp have shown that a billion defer tech majer can be run while living in a village. Vembu was awarded the Pacing Shrin 2021 All of this is leading to a sea change in rural areas as vitages re-discover their latent potential for innovation and energy.