Agri Min holds consultations with WEF on agriculture tech

Union Agriculture Ministry on Monday held consultations with World Economic Forum (WEF) as the government plans to deliver agricultural technology services to farmers through public private partnerships.

In its 2022-23 budget, the government had announced to deliver digital and hi-tech services to farmers with involvement of public sector research and extension institutions along with private agri-tech player and stakeholders of agri value chain.

Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja and Chief Knowledge Officer in the ministry Paramod Kumar Meherda along with Madhya Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary (Agriculture) Ajit Kesari were present in a day-long stakeholders' consultations with WEF.

Purushottam Kaushik, who heads Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, (C4IR) at WEF-India laid out the plan for stakeholder consultation.

''Six consultation groups were formed to deliberate on PPP Governance, Data, Sandbox, Access to Markets, Access to Finance and Access to Inputs and Advisories,'' an official statement said.

More than 140 participants from diverse stakeholders, including different state governments, state agriculture universities, ICAR, agritech startups, agri industry, banks, think tank, civil society, and farmer organisations -- participated in the consultation meeting.