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In the future, farmers around the globe are likely to face increased challenges if the rising impacts of climate change, soil degradation and water scarcity are not addressed. Yet, even as they work to adapt to these risks, smallholder farmers often encounter barriers such as access to finance, markets and agricultural inputs (e.g., tools, labour, irrigation water), that limit their agriculture productivity. Hope is on the horizon in the form of agritech innovations that are catalysing transformation in agriculture. However, limited access to agritech datasets means that farmers—especially smallholders—cannot always obtain the contextually relevant solutions they need to improve productivity and resilience. There is an urgent need for multistakeholder collaboration between the public and private sector to scale agritech-enabled data.
In 2021, the World Economic Forum launched the AI for Agricultural Innovation (AI4AI) initiative, a public–private partnership framework to scale agritech services. AI4AI encourages governments to facilitate an enabling ecosystem to drive transformation in the agricultural sector. This ecosystem is supported by three pillars:
The AI4AI framework aligns with a range of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including:
The Government of Telangana partnered with the World Economic Forum to adopt the AI4AI framework to scale digital agriculture. The Government created key DPI components, including the Agricultural Data Exchange (AdeX), an online data platform for farmers, developed with the Indian Institute of Science (IIS) and the World Economic Forum’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (India).
AdeX is designed to foster innovation by developing applications and services for farmers. The platform supports co-created solutions, enabling farmers to access key insights (such as early pest prediction and prices), and open up new pathways to credit.
smallholder farmers produce more than 80 percent of the food consumed in developing countries.
DPI has the potential to generate over USD 65 billion in the Indian agriculture sector.2 Recognizing that sector-specific agri-data is a key component of this infrastructure, Telangana is at the forefront of innovation and technology in this domain. The Government is strengthening agri-data systems to enhance food security and improve the livelihoods of smallholders in the region. Agri-data covers a vast range of metrics such as weather monitoring, soil health, land use and crop data. However, using this data effectively can be hindered by poor data quality, consent protocols and access to relevant datasets. To overcome these challenges, the Telangana Government partnered with the World Economic Forum to launch AdeX, an open-source platform that enables secure, standardized sharing of agricultural data. AdeX is currently liv with 23 data points.
AdeX connects data providers and users in a secure digital environment. The platform is backed by the Agricultural Data Framework (ADMF), a comprehensive policy and governance framework developed by the Telangana Government The framework, rooted in rights-based principles, outlines roles and responsibilities for stakeholders, including best practices and accountability mechanisms. To support standardization and interoperability, the AdeX platform uses AgriJSON (a JavaScript format). Currently, AdeX offers 23 datasets, including soil tests, weather information, annual crop trends and market information.
With the World Economic Forum as the knowledge partner, a series of consultations were held with similar platform providers, including the National Payment Corporation of India and Dawex, a data exchange solution. This led to the formation of three government–industry working groups: on data platforms and technology; data policies and governance; and data requirements for agritech. Outcomes from the consultations informed the development of the AdeX functional architecture and helped to identify appropriate datasets and use cases. Subsequently, the Government established internal working groups to map dataset quality and data owners. The development of ADeX, ADMF and AgriJSON took 12–18 months and involved consultations with over 50 experts across 60–70 working sessions.
Better data enables governments to support farmers and establish resilient food systems. Data from AdeX will contribute to effective policymaking and help to:
In 2021, the Government of Telangana implemented Project Saagu Baagu, an initiative co-created with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with the aim of improving farmer incomes and productivity. In Phase I, the Government conducted a pilot focusing on transforming the chili value chain. As part of the initiative, 7,000 chili farmers were introduced to four agritech services: soil-testing, agricultural advisory, quality testing, and e-market connectivity. Farmers witnessed an increased profit of $800 per acre per crop cycle, a 9 percent reduction in pesticides and a 5 percent reduction in fertilizer usage. Following the success of the first phase, the project has now been scaled to 50,000 farmers.
Project Saagu Baagu has already scaled to 50,000 farmers in the last 18 months. The Government of Telangana has now initiated Phase II, which will impact 500,000 farmers across five value chains and 10 districts. AdeX has been expanded and now offers 23 datasets, 10 partners and 12 use cases. Datasets include information on soil tests, crop yields and district irrigation, among others, as well as inputs from official partners NaPanta (a mobile app for farmers), Niruthi (an agritech climate company), One Money (a data platform) and the Agri Collaboratory (a non-profit think tank).
Adopting AI4AI in Telangana provided critical learnings that have helped to further refine the AI4AI public–private partnership framework. Since 2022, Telangana AI4AI has scaled to three additional states of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. The initiative is being rolled out to other emerging economies facing similar challenges within the agriculture sector. The ultimate aim of AI4AI is to impact at least one million farmers globally by 2025.
