Digitalization in agriculture is very wide as a concept. It has the potential to revolutionize the whole agriculture ecosystem which can lead to the exponential growth of the farming industry. The technology increases efficiency and eventually decreases farm costs, eventually helping the farmer.
Finally coming to our basic question.
Is this technology helpful to the small and marginal farmers of the agricultural sector?
The answer is: `Partially`.
Yes, some of the digital technology may help small and marginal farmers. The technology developed for market linkage, finances, weather forecasting, etc. As they are freely available by the government as well as some of the startups in the form of services.
But there is some technology that does have the potential to bring transformation in agriculture however can`t be a viable option for small farmers. These technologies are drones/UAVs, Automated farm machines, IoT sensors, smart farming, etc which brings precision agriculture into the picture.
However, there is one way to make this technology available to even small and marginal farmers. And the way is making a Farmer Producer Organization (FPO). The FPO is a group of such small farmers. Individually they may have less than 2 hectares of landholding but when the farmers unite and form an FPO they may have hundreds of hectares. And then such technology becomes a viable option for them.
Indian Agriculture has just started its journey of transformation. Yes, there are ample hurdles to achieve the supreme goal, but when there are challenges, there are opportunities also which can be explored. And one fine day will come when Indian agriculture will be booming and there will be smiles on every farmer of India.