Patna: Bihar’s agriculture department on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Microsave Consulting for development of an integrated digital platform for farmers. The platform intends to encourage formers to adopt modern technology for boosting farm productivity as envisaged in the Agricultural Roadmap-IV, which was launched by President Droupadi Mumru in October this year.
Director, agricultural, Bihar, Alok Ranjan Ghosh and managing director, Microsave Consulting, Manoj Kumar Sharma signed the agreement in presence of agriculture minister Kumar Sarvajeet and agriculture secretary Sanjay Kumar Agarwal. Senior programme officer of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Srivalli Krishnan was also present.
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Integrated digital farmers’ services is an essential part of the 4th Agriculture Road Map (2023-28), which seeks to promote modern technology in agriculture. The platform will also facilitate farmers through digital platforms in simple language to avail the incentives doled out by the state government. Through this integrated digital platform, farmers of the state will be able to apply to avail benefits of all the schemes of agriculture and allied departments. The digital platform will also use latest technology like artificial intelligence (AI) to provide better agriculture related services to the farmers.
It may be noted that the data collection system was developed by the agriculture department in the programs of the 3rd Agricultural Roadmap and facilities were provided through digital platform to provide the benefits of the schemes to the farmers.
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In the 4th Agriculture Roadmap, the need for a single platform for increasing the income of farmers and providing agricultural services has been felt. Through digital farmers services, agriculturists can avail the benefits of schemes of agriculture and allied departments and other services like weather information, agricultural advisory services, market price of agricultural produce and finance services etc.
Public, private and non-governmental organisation will provide various kinds of services through this platform, so that the farmers of Bihar can avail the benefits of all types of facilities available in the agricultural ecosystem at one place. An important aspect of this platform is to develop and integrate all the resources related to agriculture at one place. Grievance redressal facility will also be available to the farmers in this platform and prompt action can be taken on the level at which their applications are pending.
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The digital initiative of the department is being funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Deputy director (crops), agriculture department, Rajesh Kumar, assistant director, agricultural engineering, Shagufta Akbari and Puneet Chopra, Mitul Thapliyal and Pravesh Giri from Microsave Consulting were present.
