Latest News | Agri Ministry Signs MoU with Digital Green to Build National-level Digital Extension Platform

New Delhi, Feb 6 (PTI) The Union Agriculture Ministry on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a private social enterprise Digital Green under the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) framework to build a national-level digital extension platform.

The platform will host a digital library of curated multi-format multi-lingual content, help extension workers access and deliver curated content to farmers on time and upskill the vast network of extension workers in agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, livestock and rural livelihood missions through certified online courses, the ministry said.

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"The proposed national digital platform will help make our extension system more efficient and effective by connecting farmers to the strong foundation of digital agriculture ecosystem that is being built by the government," Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja said.

The digital capacity of this extension system is crucial to help farmers reap the benefits of digital agriculture and will serve as one of the component of digital public infrastructure for Agriculture announced recently in the 2022-23 Union Budget, he said in a statement.

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According to the ministry, there are over 200,000 extension workers in India in agriculture, livelihood and allied sectors. This ambitious initiative will converge the outreach efforts of departments of agriculture, horticulture, livestock, dairy, fisheries and rural livelihoods under a single digital platform through a decentralised content creation and targeted dissemination.

To be launched within six months, the platform will have the portal and capabilities to serve the entire farming community in India and catalyse Agtech and other market actors with newer and higher value propositions.

Digital Green, founded by a technocrat and social development enthusiast Rikin Gandhi, is a social enterprise that is leveraging the power of technology to support small and marginal farmers to enhance their productivity and income, strengthen their agency and build community-level resilience.

Digital Green has been working with governments in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, serving over 25 lakh farmers and having enhanced the capacities of over 4,000 front-like workers.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)