Catergory

Agriculture

Agriculture

Telangana's Agriculture data management policy: The good, bad, and ugly.

The Government of Telangana issued the Draft Agricultural Data Management Policy, 2022 for public consultation. We sent our comments, in the format prescribed by the state government, listing our concerns and suggestions.
03 August, 2022
5 min read
Tejasi PanjiarTejasi Panjiar & Prateek WaghrePrateek Waghre
AgriStack
Featured

MoUs for algorithms and data for profit: 4 new MoUs signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and private corporations, including Jio and Cisco.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare has recently signed 4 more Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreements regarding the Agristack with Cisco, Ninjakart, ITC Limited, and Jio. In this post, we analyse these MoUs, and explain the issues that arise as a result.
19 October, 2021
8 min read
Rohin GargRohin Garg
AgriStack
Featured

The case of the missing consultation response: Missing submissions to the Agristack consultations

Responses to our RTIs indicate that submissions from some organisations on the Agristack consultation paper were not received. Together with the AIKS, we wrote to the Agristack Working Group and the DACFW, re-submitting our suggestions and asking why they were not received in the first place.
15 September, 2021
5 min read
Rohin GargRohin Garg
AgriStack
Featured

A Thoroughly Bad IDEA: Our comments on the Agristack Consultation Paper

IFF has submitted its comments on the IDEA consultation paper. We suggest that all implementation be halted till farmers have been consulted. We have also addressed issues of data localisation, federalism, data protection, user rights, the need for public investment, and inadequate data standards.
06 July, 2021
8 min read
Rohin GargRohin Garg
PrivacyofThePeople
Featured

#PrivacyOfThePeople - Agristack and Farmers’ Issues

In the second post in our #PrivacyOfThePeople series, we discuss the issue of farmer rights under the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 with respect to aggressive digitization by governmental initiatives. Who really benefits from Agristack systems and how does a loss of privacy affect farmers?
30 June, 2021
8 min read
Rohin GargRohin Garg
AgriStack
Featured

MoUs for Nothing and Data for Free: 4 new MoUs signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and private companies, including Amazon and Patanjali

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare has recently signed 4 more MoUs regarding the Agristack with Patanjali Organic Research Institute, ESRI India Technologies, Amazon Web Services, and Star Agribazaar. Here, we analyse these MoUs, and explain what they mean for Indian agriculture.
29 June, 2021
8 min read
Rohin GargRohin Garg & Tanmay SinghTanmay Singh
AgriStack

Revealed: Ministry of Agriculture’s MOU with Microsoft on the Agristack. Urgent need for transparency and consultation!

In response to an RTI query by us, the Ministry of Agriculture provided us with a MoU between the Department of Agriculture and Microsoft, and a document titled “Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for verifying Farmer’s Database (100 Villages)”.
20 May, 2021
8 min read
Rohin GargRohin Garg & Tanmay SinghTanmay Singh
algorithmic bias

#StandWithFarmers: Joint Letter by 55 Groups | Hold the Agriculture Ministry and Microsoft India Accountable

The government recently announced that Microsoft would be conducting a pilot for the Agristack. Along with several other organisations, we wrote to the Union Minister for Agriculture, asking for further consultations, highlighting the need for statutory backing, and demanding greater transparency.
06 May, 2021
7 min read
Rohin GargRohin Garg
algorithmic bias

The AgriStack: A Primer #SaveOurPrivacy

IFF has a published an explainer on the 'AgriStack' proposed by the Centre. Through the explainer we hope to provide an introduction to the 'Agristack' and it's potential benefits and drawbacks, with a larger aim of starting a public conversation about this issue.
04 December, 2020
5 min read
Rohin GargRohin Garg

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