HARNESSING DIGITAL AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN INDIA: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

Agriculture in India faces an unprecedented challenge. As a signatory to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), India must end hunger by 2030. Achievement of this goal hinges on finding viable solutions to make farming a sustainable source of income generation by adopting sustainable agricultural practices. A survey of the literature reveals that digital technologies offer promising results to farmers globally. However, India lags in the adoption of digital technologies in agriculture. The paper identifies opportunities in promoting the development and adoption of digital agriculture technologies. It analyses policy interventions of the Government of India, such as Digital Agriculture and Precision Agriculture, to make the agriculture sector more sustainable in terms of economic, environmental, and societal perspectives. This research paper discusses barriers to their adoption and provides policy suggestions. It is an analytical paper based on a survey of literature that is secondary sources such as books, research articles, and policy documents, reports published by various government and non-government organizations, online databases, and discussion papers. Thematic analysis was used to identify sustainable agriculture dimensions and discover opportunities and challenges in using digital agriculture technologies.