Telangana government is ready with an expression of interest (EoI) document, which it is expected to issue within a fortnight, to select partners for implementing a vision of transforming agriculture value chain through innovative technological solutions.
The objective is to onboard suitable project implementation partners (PIPs) and their consortia of agri ecosystem players to prove and establish the transformation potential of innovative technological solutions along the value chain, IT Minister K. T. Rama Rao’s office said in a release here on Tuesday.
At the heart of this move is Saagu Baagu, a project conceptualised under a flagship initiative called AI for Agriculture Innovation (AI4AI) to transform the state of agriculture by deploying emerging technologies in a scalable, inclusive and sustainable way. The project seeks to touch at least one lakh farmers over four crop cycles and establish enough readiness to scale it across the State.
Agriculture Department with support from the State’s Agricultural University (PJTSAU), IT Department and World Economic Forum is spearheading the Saagu Baagu project. Mr.Rao had launched AI4AI in August 2020 in continuation of a collaboration of the State government with C4IR India, World Economic Forum and a cross-section of the agritech industry and the start-up community.
Nine frameworks and 30 use cases along four parts of the agriculture value chain — crop planning, smart farming, farmgate-to-fork and data-driven agriculture — have been identified under AI4AI. While Saagu Baagu project will be a five-year effort, the role of PIPs will be for two years or 3-4 crop cycles across multiple districts of select priority crops such as cotton, chilli and turmeric for kharif season and groundnut, bengal gram and paddy for rabi season. Each PIP, along with its consortium, is required to propose at least five distinct use-cases across any crop value chain to ensure holistic deployment is undertaken and not just a conventional single use-case pilot approach.
IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said adoption of technology is the only sustainable approach to improve lives of farmer and the same is to be facilitated under Saagu Baagu. For the project, a Public-Private Cooperation framework has been finalised under which the government will establish an enabling environment in collaboration with State institutions, which would address challenges and accelerate the adoption and usage of agritech use cases, the Minister’s office said.
