Impact of Digital India Programme On-Farm Productivity And Income

The Digital India programme has helped the agricultural sector in many ways. Digital technologies including the Internet, mobile technologies, data analytics, artificial intelligence, digital services, and applications are transforming agriculture and the food system. The impact of the Digital India programme on farm productivity and income are:

• Technological interventions enable farmers to collect, view and evaluate crop and soil conditions at various stages of production in a convenient and cost-effective manner. Remote sensing, ground sensors, unmanned aerial photography, market analysis and more are used for described benefits. All these digital technologies help in farm productivity and farmers’ income.
• Digital India can serve as preliminary evidence to provide an opportunity to identify potential problems and address them in a timely manner. 
• Better market pricing and lower transaction costs are where Digital India will have the biggest impact. It could link every farmer to every part of the nation. By doing so, farmers would be able to reduce the cost they pay to intermediaries and increase their earnings.
• Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) algorithms can generate real-time actionable insights to help improve crop yield, control pests, assist in soil screening, provide actionable data for farmers and reduce their workload.
• Blockchain technology provides tamper-proof and accurate data on farms, stocks, fast and secure transactions and food traceability. Thus, farmers do not have to depend on documents or files to record and store important data. This is an important focus area under the Digital India programme.
• Digital technology can also help governments to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of existing policies and programmes and drive better growth. For example, free high-quality satellite imagery significantly reduces the cost of monitoring many agricultural activities. This could enable the government to move towards a more targeted policy that pays (or penalizes) farmers based on environmental performance.
• With the Direct Cash Transfer system replacing agricultural subsidies, digital India would help the government reach the needy and underprivileged farmers. This would contribute to higher agricultural productivity and lower farmer debt loads.
• The use of mobile money has given customers in rural areas access to enormous options. Farmers may obtain credit and support savings through digital channels, which allow them to avoid substandard banking infrastructure. Initiatives like the PM Jan Dhan Yojana and Bhim, among others, may be crucial. This way online banking helps in farm productivity and farmers’ income.
• Ultimately, digital technologies can support trade in agricultural and food products by connecting private sector suppliers to new markets and provide governments with new ways to monitor and enforce standards, as well as provide faster and more efficient frontiers, and processes, which are necessary for perishable products.