The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to co-create data-driven innovations in agriculture and food systems to improve the lives and livelihoods of smallholder farmers by sharing open-source data for product development, transfer of technology and supporting the framing of agrarian policies.
According to the release by NABARD the MoU includes enhancing and disseminating collaborative digital public goods like DiCRA (data in climate resilient agriculture). DiCRA is a collaborative digital public good which provides open access to key geospatial datasets pertinent to climate-resilient agriculture. By partnering to enhance and scale its use, NABARD will host and maintain the DiCRA platform and use its key geospatial datasets for policy making, research and development activities, with UNDP’s technical support.
Calling the MoU a great opportunity for both organisations, Shaji KV, chairman of NABARD, said, “NABARD is extremely excited about this collaboration with UNDP. This opens a sea of opportunities for the two organizations to leverage data and present it as a digital public infrastructure for the vast rural Indian community of farmers. We are looking forward to deeper ties with UNDP as we progress, and this MoU is a step towards this direction.”
“DiCRA uses cutting-edge data science and machine learning to identify farms that are resilient to climate change and those that are highly vulnerable. Such open data innovations can highlight best practices, optimize agriculture investments and shelter populations from risk,” Isabelle Tschan, deputy resident representative said. The collaboration with NABARD will strengthen our support to build sustainable agricultural practices and secure livelihoods reducing the vulnerability of small farm holders, especially women,” she added.
The MoU was signed by the chief general manager of NABARD, Sanjeev Rohilla, and UNDP deputy resident representative, Isabelle Tschan. Through this MoU, UNDP will leverage its expertise in open innovations, data collaboratives, data science approaches and global know-how for supporting NABARD’s agenda of embedding data-driven decision-making in agriculture investments, the release said.
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