The Ministry of Agriculture signed five MoUs with CISCO, Ninjacart, Jio Platforms Ltd, ITC Ltd and NCDEX e-Markets Ltd (NeML). These five tech giants will conduct pilot projects to integrate digital technology and other best practices in the agricultural sector. 

These MoUs are a part of the digital agriculture mission that has been initiated for 2021-25 by the government to integrate emerging technology such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, remote sensing and GIS technology, use of drones and robots etc.

To support these innovations, the ministry is working towards digitizing data in agriculture; the ministry is creating a federated farmers database that will be linked to land records of farmers from across the country and a unique farmer ID will be created.

These technologies will support farmers to make informed decisions on suitable crops to grow, types of seeds to use and the best practices for maximum yields. "The agriculture supply chain players can plan their procurement and logistics on precise and timely information. Farmers can make informed decisions about whether to sell or store their produce and when and where and what price to sell," an official statement said.

"Under this unified database for all farmers the information of all benefits and supports of various schemes of Central and State Government can be kept and this can be the source for accessing information for providing benefits to farmers in the future. So far, the database is ready with details of around 5.5 crore farmers," the statement said.