Agriculture Ministry sign MoU with Microsoft for farmer welfare

April 15, 2021

The Agricultural Ministry of India recently signed Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft to implement a pilot project for farmer welfare.

The project will focus on technology boosted agriculture.
It will provide smart agricultural techniques to the farmers especially during post-harvest season.
The project is to be launched in hundred villages of six states.
The six states selected for the project are Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.
It will carry out various tasks for the betterment of farmers.

In 2019, Microsoft India launched Project ReWeave to help handloom weavers. The project aims to revive handloom weaving ecosystem in India. An E-Commerce platform was launched under the project. It will help weavers to increase their income.
Microsoft has partnered with AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) to empower educators and learners with future ready skills.
It has joined with the National Skill Development Corporation to provide digital skills to more than one lakh underserved women in India. Under the programme, Microsoft will provide a series of live training sessions and help create opportunities for women and young girls.

India ranks second in farm output in the world. More than 50% of workforce in India are employed in agriculture. They contribute 17% to 18% of GDP of India.
India exports 38 billion USD worth agricultural products. This makes India the seventh largest agricultural exporter in the world.
Though, the output of Indian agricultural sector is good, productivity is low. Agricultural Productivity is the ratio between agricultural output to input.