Telangana Mulls Innovation in Agriculture With Emerging Technologies

Hyderabad: Agriculture is a priority sector for Telangana State. An estimated 5 million farmers with an average landholding size of 2.77 acres (1.12 hectares1) cultivate 40.53% of the state’s geography i.e. 115 lakh acres (46.54 lakh hectares ) and contribute 14.6% to the state’s GSDP was 14.6% in 2018-19 

With this vision, the Government of Telangana collaborated with C4IR India, the World Economic Forum, and a cross-section of the AgriTech Industry and the start-up community to explore the potential of deploying emerging technologies for making a difference to the agriculture sector in the state. This was done under the flagship initiative, termed AI4AI (AI for Agriculture Innovation), which was launched by Hon’ble IT Minister Shri KT Rama Rao in Aug’20. The AI4AI initiative resulted in the identification of 9 frameworks and 30 use cases along 4 parts of the agriculture value chain, namely, Crop Planning, Smart Farming, Farmgate-to-Fork, and Data-driven Agriculture. 

With a view to realizing the benefits envisaged by the AI4AI initiative, a project called Saagu Baagu (which means Agriculture-Advancement) has been conceptualized with a vision “To transform the state of agriculture by deploying emerging technologies in a scalable, inclusive and sustainable way.” The envisioned scale of the project is to touch at least 100,000 farmers over 4 crop cycles and establish enough readiness to scale it across the State. The Saagu Baagu Project is being led by the Agriculture Department with support from the State’s Agricultural University (PJTSAU), ITE&C Department, and  World Economic Forum.

Hence, the Government of Telangana has prepared a request for Expression of Interest that’ll be released in 1 to 2 weeks. The objective of the EoI shall be to onboard suitable Project Implementation Partners and their consortia of leading Agri ecosystem players, to prove and establish the transformation potential of innovative technological solutions along the Agri value chain. The project shall be implemented on the principle – ‘Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast.  

While the overall Saagu Baagu project is planned to be a 5-year focused effort, the PIPs onboarded under the EoI shall be confined to 2 years (3~4 crop cycles) across multiple districts of select priority crops such as Cotton, Chill, and Turmeric for the Kharif season. and Ground Nut, Bengal Gram, and Paddy for Rabi season. Each PIP along with its consortium shall have to propose at least 5 distinct use-cases across any crop value chain to ensure a holistic deployment is undertaken and not just a conventional single use-case pilot approach.

Considering the challenges to scale emerging technologies and the multi-dimensional nature of the agriculture sector, a collaborative approach between government and the private sector as a Public-Private Cooperation (PPC) has been finalized for the Saagu Baagu Project. Under the PPC framework, the government would establish an enabling environment in collaboration with state institutions, which would address challenges and accelerate the adoption and usage of Agritech use cases. 

Shri. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, ITE&C Department, Government of Telangana, said “In order to truly improve the lives of farmers, adoption of technology is the only sustainable approach and the same shall be facilitated under our Saagu Baagu Project.”