12th Monthly Column Digital Transformation August-2020

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12th Monthly Column Digital Transformation August-2020

Background
The first green revolution of India started from mid 1960s mainly because the rate of growth in agricultural harvests could not keep pace with population growth. The revolution was predominantly driven by the ultimate objective of achieving self-sufficiency in food and contributing to mitigate shortage elsewhere in the world. India adopted high-yielding varieties of seeds. Government’s initiatives gradually helped farmers with improved availability of irrigation facilities, fertilisers,and insecticides. This was followed by limited mechanisation of cultivation using tractors, pumps, deep tube wells, and other low end devices for harvesting, etc. The process of green revolution continued with contributions from various research work for cross breeding of plants and seeds, all weather farming of erstwhile seasonal crops and vegetables, improving soil testing, manure applications farming techniques, etc. Farmers now grow many crops, vegetables and fruits of western origin which were never grown in India just about two decadesbefore. Another revolution joined the march, and that was white revolution. But even after seventy-three years of independence, Indian farmers are deprived of the rightful price for their harvests, because of too many intermediaries. Their produces are subjected to adulteration, contamination, wastage, and spoilage due to unscrupulous traders and non-availability of affordable storage, supply chain and cold chain facilities. Reliability of harvest cannot be established due to lack of quality-based gradation and traceability to the origin of farmland and farmers. Farmers in India do not have easy access to technical advisories and services related to weather conditions, soil testing, crop scouting, etc. They do not get right quality and quantities of inputs such as seeds, fertilisers, etc. at the right prices and at the right time. Last but not the least crop loans from banks and insurance for coverage against perils of nature are also not available without pains and hurdles. These situation for agriculture and agriculturists may not be much different in many underdeveloped and developing countries.
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