Advancing Digital Public Infrastructure for the Agriculture Sector

This document provides insights into how digital public infrastructure (DPI) can advance the agriculture sector. It details the Agri.DPI framework and the Agriculture Data Exchange (ADEX) initiative in Telangana, India. The paper is targeted towards governments, policymakers, industries, and agritech start-ups seeking to build digital public goods in agriculture. The document offers a methodology for operationalizing an Agricultural Data Exchange (ADEX) and Agricultural Data Management Framework (ADMF).

Key Insights

Agri.DPI Framework

Agriculture DPI, or agri. DPI, is visualized as a DPI that enables seamless exchange of data across the agriculture ecosystem to support digital agriculture and innovation. It is a digital platform supported by a set of policies and protocols with three foundation layers: Data enablement, Data governance and Data exchange platform (see the figure below).

Data Enablement

Ensuring the availability and accessibility of quality datasets enabled by the DPI. Agriculture datasets are available with various government departments, academic institutions, farmer organizations (including individual farmers) and private sector stakeholders. To increase the accessibility of available data, datasets have been identified based on their availability, quality and, most importantly, utility in operationalizing the prioritized use cases, such as access to finance, access to advisories and access to markets.

Data Exchange Platform

The data exchange platform, referred to as the Agriculture Data Exchange (ADEX), has been developed and deployed as the core component of the agri.DPI to enable data sharing between data providers and users in a rights-protecting way. ADEX is modular in nature with five modules deployed initially in phase I: Identity and access management, Data explorer, API gateway, Consent manager, and Transaction engine.

Data Governance

Policy measures to promote responsible access and utilization of agricultural data. A World Economic Forum white paper has identified three key requirements for responsible sharing of data: protecting individuals, preventing harm and promoting innovation.

Key Statistics & Data

• The average farm globally generated approximately 190,000 data points daily in 2014 (World Bank).
• This figure will skyrocket to about 4.1 million data points per farm per day by 2050.
• Artificial intelligence-driven digital solutions - fueled by data and enabled by digital public infrastructure - have the potential to add over $65 billion of value to the Indian agriculture sector (McKinsey report).
• A pilot program in Telangana provided 7,000 chili farmers access to agritech services which saw an increase of about $2,000 to their net income per hectare.

Methodology

The World Economic Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution India collaborated with the Indian State Government of Telangana to develop a framework for establishing responsible data ecosystems. The development of ADEX, ADMF and AgriJSON has been undertaken over 12-18 months, with more than 50 experts and almost 60-70 working sessions.

Implications and Conclusions

Digital agriculture has the potential to achieve inclusivity, efficiency, and sustainability for the agriculture and food systems. Quality data and responsible data sharing are critical for this. Agriculture sector should leverage existing DPIs while developing more foundational layers to enable research and innovation. ADEX is focused on testing the concept by aligning databases, deploying the platform and onboarding limited partners, the next phase will be focused on scaling the ecosystem of data providers, use cases and service providers in the next 3-5 years. It is crucial to bolster capacity in the public and private sectors, cultivate a sustainable business model and incentivize stakeholders to join the ecosystem.