Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sep 12: In order to support smallholder farmers, UNDP India and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Tuesday. The agreement aims to jointly develop data-driven innovations in agriculture and food systems.
In accordance with the MoU, the organisations will share open-source data for product development, technology transfer and support the formulation of agrarian policies in an effort to improve the lives and livelihoods of smallholder farmers, a joint statement released on Tuesday by NABARD and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) India stated.
Collaboration-based digital public goods like DiCRA (Data in Climate Resilient Agriculture) are intended to be improved and made more widely available through this alliance.
Key geospatial datasets relevant to climate resilient agriculture are freely accessible through DiCRA. For 50 million hectares of farmland nationwide, DiCRA, which is compiled by UNDP and partner organisations to inform the public about investments in agriculture, already offers information on climate resilience.
With UNDP’s technical assistance, NABARD stated it will host, maintain and utilize the DiCRA platform’s primary geospatial datasets for policymaking, research and development operations.
Nabard Chairman Shaji K V, who spoke on the occassion, said the partnership creates a wealth of options for the two groups to use data and present it as a digital public infrastructure for the huge rural farming population in India. These breakthroughs in open data may highlight best practices, maximise investments in agriculture and protect communities from a variety of threats, according to the joint statement.
Isabelle Tschan, Deputy Resident Representative for UNDP India said, ”The collaboration will strengthen our support to build sustainable agricultural practices and secure livelihoods, reducing the vulnerability of small farm holders, especially women.”
