1 Introduction

India, as one of the world's most populous countries, democratically, demographically, and geographically, confronts a significant difficulty in providing E-governance services to its vast population. People in this nation, especially farmers, are poor, have low literacy levels, and nearly non-existent IT literacy is most apparent among its other problems [1]. Often low to middle-income farmer, and especially smallholders are unaware of E-government initiatives or their benefits and also makes minimal use of Information technology in the advancement of their farm and farm activities [2]. In 2021, India ranked 29th among the 120 nations for internet readiness, which defines the general capacity to access the Internet, including skills, cultural acceptance, and supporting policy [3]. Furthermore, as per the Global Innovation Index (GII), 2021, India ranks 111th and 110th in ICT use and access, respectively, among the 132 economies featured in the GII 2021 study, indicating that the use of ICTs in India is very poor [4]. This is even though India is one of the early adopters of E-Government among developing economies. The issue appears to be a lack of a sound national ICT policy, as well as the essential skills in both the creation and execution of the policy [5]. Emerging economies and rural regions are considered vulnerable to a digital divide and are at risk of being left behind in the process due to a general lack of technical infrastructure, expensive technology prices, low levels of e-literacy and digital skills, a poor regulatory environment, and restricted access to services. This brings attention to farmers' communities, i.e., whether farmers will be able to apply contemporary technologies in a nation where education, farm holding size, infrastructure, low technology acceptance, and other factors limit their ability to do so.

E-Governance initiatives are facilitating a gradual, evolutionary process of digitization. As per the latest developments, the nodal agency MEITY (GoI), is monitoring and working to improve the E-Government Development Index (EGDI) in which India currently ranks 105th globally among 193 participating countries. Fundamentally, there is a plethora of challenges associated with the digitalization of the Indian agriculture sector. Other than small land holdings, the main obstacles to the state of digitalization include poor rural connectivity, reluctance to adopt new terms and technologies, a lack of technological literacy that restricts digital skills, a lack of scalability standards, and, to make matters worse, a lack of qualified personnel. The availability of multiple immature products (mobile apps, portals, dashboards) further destabilizes the conviction of poor farmers, suggesting a lack of a vision-based approach of the administration. Farmers are unclear on whether to utilize one, search for another, or ignore and stick to the old practices. This holds for an emerging need to demonstrate the technology to the farmers and develop local solutions based on local issues. The process necessitates its establishment under strong ethical foundations built up on traditional knowledge-based sustainable practices. Research must be put to use and accentuate the traditional knowledgebase of agriculture, as well as plan for a comprehensive ICT portal supporting specific mobile-based applications while satisfying the E-government objectives and its facets such as government-to-farmer (G2F), government-to-business (G2B), government-to-government (G2G), and business-to-farmer (B2F).

This review attempts to map the Indian agricultural digitalization process while covering the essential domains of E-Governance which is the backbone of the Indian digital roadmap. Surprisingly, there is a negligible number of scientific works of literature available in this domain, hence, a stringent effort has been made to cover all facets of E-governance in Indian agriculture, beginning with its inception, advancement, and present status as well as a synergy between the center and the states across the domains of G2G, G2F, G2B, and B2F. Administrative efforts made in this regard have all been congregated and discussed their usability and difficulties. To further highlight India's perspective and strategies in this regard, a global overview of E-governance initiatives has been provided. The article concludes with the specific constraints India is currently facing to develop and implement the Agri E-governance models, and what could be a potential way forward.

2 Search methodology and data curation

Strategy: This review paper is based up on the approach towards advancements in the E-governance domain of Indian digital agriculture, and the evolution of ‘National Digital Agriculture Ecosystem’ as well as the Agristack vision towards digitalization, while contextualizing the challenges of this digital transition.

Data curation: Published works ideally in English available from Google Scholar, Science direct, Mendeley, and Semantic Scholar databases were consulted to derive the latest information on the topic using a set of terms such as, ‘Digital agriculture’, ‘E-governance’, ‘Governance’, “Digital technologies’, ‘Smart agriculture’, mobile apps/technology’, ‘Indian Agriculture policy’, and ‘Indian Agrotech’. The literature search for this article was supplemented by published material from a diverse array of web sources, such as government databases, credible news portals, and suggested links that may be freely available.

3 The state of digitalization and E-governance in the Indian agriculture sector

During the first decade of the current century, it became clear that conventional service delivery and governance processes needed to be changed. It was important to develop and execute an information and communication technology (ICT)-based governance strategy to enhance openness and efficiency, as well as increase transparency, convenience, and income development [6]. Satellites and drones and to some extent IoT, are being increasingly used to collect data on soil health, crop area, and yield, which helps lower insurance costs by improving estimates and making the system more precise and effective. Over the last few years, India has steadily improved its digital connection and commercial linkages. The number of internet users is predicted to reach 900 million by 2025, and the government views this as a chance to assist farmers in becoming more aware of and connected to a variety of stakeholders. The administration wants to make extensive use of digital technology to raise farmer awareness, share information, and implement government initiatives that leverage digital technology for direct money transfers. Agriculture is projected to transform as a result of the use of digital technologies [7].

3.1 The NeGP-A

The Ministry of Agriculture’s Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) opted to execute the National E-governance Program in the Agricultural Sector (NeGP-A) as a Mission Mode Project (A-MMP) to encompass the agriculture, livestock, and fisheries sectors. It was one of the 27 Mission Mode Projects under the State Category of the National E-governance Plan (NeGP) duly approved by the Union Cabinet in May 2006. The A-MMP aimed to meet the requirements of farmers and other associated stakeholders by providing appropriate information and services through the many delivery channels available in their area, allowing them to make more informed decisions [8]. The project had a farmer-centric and service-orientated approach in providing information services to farmers on a variety of farm-related issues including seeds, soil-test-based information, fertilizers, pests, government schemes, and weather. The other major deliverables include certifications, licensing, and grievance monitoring and redressal system, as well as enablement of private sector participation. NeGP-A was a comprehensive implementation strategy for digital agriculture, that was first implemented on a pilot scale across seven states, and later during 2014–15, this Scheme was extended to Phase II which covered all of the States including the two UTs [9]. NeGPA aimed to achieve rapid development in India through the use of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) for timely access to agriculture-related information for farmers [10].

3.2 The DFI committee's recommendation

Recognizing the importance of new digital and developing technologies, the Committee on Doubling Farmers' Income (DFI) also advised the expansion and improvements in digital agricultural projects [9]. They explicitly urged to focus on contemporary agricultural management practices such as Robotics, Drones and sensors technology, GIS and remote sensing technology, data analytics and cloud computing, AI/ML strategies, use of IoT, and Blockchain to build traceability for produce from farms to fork. Addressing the DFI recommendations, the NeGPA guidelines were amended in FY21, and funds were released for sanctioning projects for customization or shifting of web and mobile applications already developed by the States, to the platform to be developed using digital (emerging) technologies. Under phase II, new initiatives were undertaken like creating Farmer Database and Unified Farmers Service Platform (UFSP), etc.[11].

3.3 The IDEA framework

Recently, the central agencies have established an India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA) framework, with the primary goal of enabling farmers technologically, to increase their revenue and profitability by gaining access to the appropriate information at the right time and through innovative services. It is being developed from the available data of schemes like PM-KISAN, Soil Health Cards, PM Fasal Bima Yojana, etc., and linking this data with the digitized land records. This framework aims to assist in the inclusive advancement of the agricultural sector, especially in the direction of developing an Agristack. Work on creating a unified farmers' database has also been commenced recently, to serve as the mainstay of this proposed system [12]. Concerning the issues of data security, the involvement of the private sector has largely been capped in this direction. However, the leading Agri-tech and Startup enterprises were identified and invited to develop Proof of Concepts using sample data from certain identified areas at the Districts or Village level. Agristack envisages a digital ecosystem for an end-to-end delivery system for the farmers and aims to provide a larger push to digitize data in India, ranging from land titles to medical records. Each farmer will receive a unique digital identification (farmers' ID) as part of the scheme, which will include personal information, information about the land they farm, as well as productivity and financial information. Each ID has been envisaged to be further linked to their Aadhaar ID [13]. For the last few decades, digital agriculture has gotten a lot of attention for the growth of the agriculture industry. Not only are the digitally available approaches beneficial to farmers' livelihoods, but appropriate documentation, traceability, and transparency are also advantageous to the country's economic prosperity.

4 G2G facet of E-governance in the sector

The ability of government agencies to communicate, i.e., exchange data, is dependent on the collaboration and cooperation structures in place. G2G communication is the backbone of e-governance, where data is shared and coordinated between the governments at the Central, State, and local levels. The goal of these services is to build relationships amongst different levels of government to deliver better services [14]. G2G is also an opportunity to reach out to the global economies and establish a channel for mutual interests. The economic and strategic connections with other nations help boost the exports of processed products through trade agreements. For example, India recently declared itself a wheat surplus nation adequate to be able to supply to the nations as per their trade agreements and MOUs under this model [15]. Under the AGRISNET, a countrywide farmer’s database linked with land records is being developed for efficient planning, monitoring, policy-making, strategy formulation, and smooth implementation of schemes for farmers across the country [9]. AGRISNET is a centralized fund aimed at offering farmers IT-enabled services and computerizing different offices in the agricultural and related industries in the states [16]. SEEDNET intends to provide information concerning the seed sector, quality control, seed replacement rate, seed multiplication ratio, breeder seeds, foundation seeds, certified seeds, etc. Similarly, HORTNET portal is for holistic growth of the horticulture sector covering fruits, vegetables, root & tuber crops, mushrooms, spices, flowers, aromatic plants, coconut, cashew, cocoa, and bamboo. All such national agricultural initiatives developed under the G2G model of e-governance have been identified and presented below (Table 1).

Table 1 Important G2G initiatives and projects in India
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5 G2F facet of E-governance in the sector

Establishing a connection between administrative agencies and the farmers is known as the government-to-farmers (G2F) model of e-governance. An effective G2F has the essential resources for government agency collaboration and communication with the goal of better serving the farmers. In recent years, the agriculture sector has witnessed a slew of government and state-sponsored initiatives, such as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), all aimed at improving farmer incomes. Under the G2F initiatives, projects such as mKisan, PMFBY, Kisan Call center, IFFCO, E NAM, and Kisan Suvidha, etc. have been launched both by the states as well as the center. Among the Indian states, the Karnataka model is also very approaching with its e-initiatives such as Farmer Registration and Unified Beneficiary Information System (FRUIT), Bhoomi app (Land Record Management), Crop Cutting Experiment (CCE), and Samrakshane app. The Kisan Call Centre (KCC) scheme was launched to expeditiously deliver extension information and support to the farmers, using the vast telecommunication network which has grown remarkably [17]. Similarly, an SMS portal was launched in 2013 to send curated text and voice-based advisories to the farmers on different issues related to agriculture and allied sectors in their language, preference of agricultural practices, and location. The government launched the Farmers portal in 2016 which acts as a one-stop shop for farmers where a farmer can get all the relevant information regarding seeds, crops, fertilizers, pesticides, credit, good practices, dealer network, availability of inputs, beneficiary list, farm machinery, and Agromet advisories, etc. around his village, block and district or state.A brief account of major G2F initiatives has been presented under the tabulated list as presented in Table 2 detailing their purpose, key users, coverage area, etc.

Table 2 Important G2F initiatives and projects in India
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6 G2B or B2G facet of E-governance in the Sector

A good relationship between the government and local businesses, both large and small, is incredibly important in a thriving economy. In the agricultural sector, G2B governance benefits the traders, stakeholders as well and administration, besides improving the economy of the farmers. Computerized Registration of Pesticides (CROP) was developed by the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee as a web-based application for the Registration of Pesticides. Further, to sustain crop production by preventing losses due to pests and diseases, an information system was established in the year 2002, known as the Plant Quarantine Information System (PQIS) to prevent the entry, establishment, and spread of exotic pests in India as per the provisions of The Destructive Insects & Pests Act, 1914. Additionally, an Integrated Fertilizer Management System (iFMS, aka e-Urvarak) was launched in 2016 as a comprehensive system covering all functionalities in the fertilizer supply chain and for effective monitoring of the movement of fertilizers up to the retailer level [18]. To trace the sale and purchase of subsidized fertilizers, the government has installed Point-of-Sale (POS) devices to monitor the sale through each retailer by identifying the beneficiaries via Aadhar card, Voter card, KCC, etc. In 2019, phase II of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in fertilizer subsidy was launched to monitor leakages, pilferages, and black marketing of subsidized fertilizers by the use of ICT. The new initiatives include DBT Dashboard, POS 3.0, and the Desktop POS version [19]. The major G2B initiatives taken by the government have been presented along with their coverage area, key users, purpose, and implementation status under Table 3.

Table 3 Important G2B/B2G initiatives and projects in India
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7 B2F facet of E-governance in the sector

To enhance the economic growth of the farmers, there is an emerging need to develop and diversify the sources of income through businesses. Several initiatives have been taken by the government to provide a platform for rural enterprises and business linkages to the farmers. To exemplify, Agmarknet is a portal on agricultural marketing, providing both static and dynamic information relating to agricultural marketing in India. Also, farmers are now able to receive information related to the prices of crops in markets within 50 km of their location using the Mobile App. Similarly, the National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) is an electronic trading platform with pan-India coverage that connects the existing APMC markets and intends to integrate the national agricultural commodities market. Remote bidding and mobile-based payment are two key elements of the e-NAM platform that help farmers trade their products more effectively. It also boosts inter-state commerce by offering online transportation services for far-flung buyers. Also, e-RaKAM is a unique initiative that intends to connect farmers from small communities to global markets. It has attempted to unite farmers, civil supply, and buyers together on a single platform to make selling and buying agricultural goods easier. Some states have even digitalized their agronomic markets by launching electronic purchase portals like e-Kharid to digitalize their agri-markets and ensure fair prices (MSPs) for the farmers in the state. Later, a complimentary initiative of the Haryana state government ‘Meri Fasal, Mera Byora’ (MFMB) was also linked with this portal. The data obtained from these portals help in deciding fair MSP for all the crops and cover more crops under MSP [20].

8 Global strategies and contextualization of challenges at the local scale

Considering, that the concept of regional economic integration revolves around increased connectivity, the Indian administration is undertaking major G2G projects with the governments of other countries, that aim to boost agricultural exports by taking advantage of G2G business connections between India and other countries. However, the inherent challenges with Indian agriculture and several barriers to implementing global digital agricultural technologies might prove to be a deterrent. To achieve the goals, better engagements, solutions, and unified approaches are needed. A recent World Bank Group report emphasizes the importance of digital technology in agriculture, concluding that the digital revolution and the data it generates are critical to the development of an agricultural and food system that is efficient, environmentally sustainable, equitable, and capable of connecting the world's 570 million farms with its 8 billion customers [21]. This report is of particular interest, especially for the strategies it suggests for realizing the long-awaited digital revolution in food systems (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Source: Adapted from Schroeder et al. [21]

A global perspective for the digital transformation of Food systems.

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Key conclusions that can be deduced from here include the adoption of digital technologies holistically, safeguarding the farmer’s authority and control over their data, the critical importance of privacy through personal data protection, and the need to leverage emerging technologies for precision agriculture. Besides, the digital ecosystem should also be open for innovation while guaranteeing security and privacy, interoperability, as well as, data quality, data governance, and data standards. With this view, India appears to have adopted an ecosystem-based approach and has recently been working to apply global ICT principles and methodologies to digital agriculture interventions at the national level, giving rise to the program 'India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture' [13, 22, 23]. The project's purpose is to develop a ‘National Digital Agriculture Ecosystem’, enhance farmer welfare and income, and raise the efficiency and productivity of the Indian agriculture industry. The immediate goals include the development of supportive legislative and regulatory frameworks. But it needs to be done with prudence, taking into account issues regarding privacy, compatibility, and even potential responsibility. The regulatory environment should be able to affect the adoption of digital technologies sustainably and inclusively, the technologies that can affect the sector's skill requirements, and the traceability technologies to improve the transparency of the agricultural value chain, to increase food safety, to combat fraud, and possibly even to enable new demand-side policies to promote sustainability. The International Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) seems to be working along similar lines and is currently looking into the advantages and disadvantages of using technology in agriculture policy [24].

Strengthening the technological capabilities in the agriculture sector, the scale of implementation makes it a humongous task considering India’s vast geographic and socio-political status. According to the E-Government Survey 2022, among the 193 countries, India currently ranks 105th with an e-Government Development Index (EGDI) of 0.5883, lower than the global average of 0.6102. However, despite being a Low to middle-income country with poorly developed telecommunication systems, India has a very high Online Services Index (OSI) which shows its recent success in improving the efficacy and strengthening its online services [25, 26]. Further, due to the complexity of issues involved with the agricultural sector, such as infrastructure and a demographic situation reflecting the digital divide among the masses, achieving the same feat in terms of E-agriculture is very difficult. There are also additional barriers to adopting global digital agricultural methods, such as farm size and land ownership status of small and marginal farmers. As per the World Bank's Rural Development Strategy, Smallholder farmers are defined as having a small asset value and operating on less than 2 hectares of agriculture [27]. While there are several advantages to an agricultural system centered on small farms, such a structure presents nationwide issues.

8.1 Digitalization as a transformative force and the ethical concerns

The socio-technological process of applying digital innovation in the agriculture sector is a global phenomenon, which encompasses technologies like IoT, big data, blockchain, robotics, AI & data processing, farm management applications comprising of proximal sensors, remote sensing, etc. [28]. Application of these technologies are expected to ease the life of farmers [29], bring about radical transformations in the productive processes [30], and supply-chain systems [31]. The emerging concepts to express different forms of digitalization include, precision agriculture [32, 33], smart farming [34], digital agriculture [35, 36], Agriculture 4.0 [35], and so on. Regardless of which of these terms are used, the characteristic implications remain the same, i.e., management of on-farm and off-farm tasks involved in the food value chain systems focusing on different sorts of data using sensors, and unmanned vehicles like drones, and robots. The interpretation of data in tandem with agricultural knowledge and innovation systems [37], through constant monitoring, to make more timely decisions, is the primary essence of digitalization and governance systems in agriculture [38, 39], which is expected to provide technical optimization of agricultural production systems, value chains and food systems. As India aspires to attain food security and improve rural lives, the use of AI in digital agriculture has the potential to transform the sector, making it more robust and responsive to the dynamic challenges of the twenty-first century [7].

But with increasing productivity and efficiency aims, there is an increasing awareness of potential socio-ethical challenges. Aside from digital alternatives, proper documentation, traceability, and transparency are also important for farmer and rural economic growth [40, 41]. To ensure the proper and efficient use of digital technologies, ethical issues, data privacy concerns, and potential biases in AI algorithms must all be resolved [39, 42]. The responsible research and innovation method seeks to address these issues, but its use in situations related to smart farming is relatively few [39, 43]. Many researchers have studied the socio-ethical consequences and identified the issues at the farm, agricultural community, and societal levels [42, 44,45,46]. These studies have raised concerns about the impact of digitalization on farming communities' cultural fabric, the dispersion of local agricultural managers or skill sets, a need for an entirely new set of skills and machinery, as well as agricultural equipment manufacturers, input suppliers, and retailers. These challenges are exacerbated by the rapid pace and commercialization nature of advanced technical breakthroughs [47]. These difficulties provide hurdles for smart farming research and innovation, as well as the future spread of farming technology, in terms of predicting and mitigating any negative repercussions [48]. In agriculture, studies on the ethical character of digitalization are still relatively uncommon, and those that are available are not focused on smart or digital systems [39]. It can be suggested that research and innovation should take into account societal values, needs, and expectations such as privacy, information use, sustainability, and justice, power and control, impact on human values, and international relations [42, 49].

8.2 Small land holdings and multiple cropping systems

Small-scale farmers frequently grow multiple crops on their farms, posing issues in terms of how different crops interact and how digital systems can isolate each crop's performance to deliver relevant advisory. Small farms have a scarcity of goods and labeled data. Satellite data is scarce, sensors are sparingly installed, and only voice data for the most widely spoken languages are collected. Furthermore, satellite photography has a resolution of a few meters per pixel, which is typically insufficient for small farms [50]. Besides, the variation in average farm sizes among countries also has major ramifications for implementation of Digital Agriculture. In Indian context, as per the Ag. Census data of 2015–16, the operational land holdings for large-holders has substantially decreased from 6.5 to 4.3%, while small marginal holdings have climbed from 62.9% in 2000–01 to 68.5% in 2015–16 [51]. Additionally, India has a very low average farm size of just 1.08 ha, which is significantly less than other major agricultural producers such as the United States, Brazil, and others. China on the other hand having a similar farm size to India, is far better at managing its farms and agriculture [52, 53]. The graph below illustrates the average farm size distribution of various other nations across the globe (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2
figure 2

Area Wise farm size (Ha) holding by the farmers in major Agri producing Nations [51, 54, 55]

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In the past, many developing Asian countries have encouraged farm consolidation as well as establishment of larger-scale farm companies in order to overcome their own challenges associated with having small, farm-based agricultural economy. China’s Ministry of Agriculture had identified farm size increase as one of its primary targets and implemented the same in their 13th Five-year Plan. Subsequently, they also strengthened their land rights protection laws, that allows land transfers between families and promotes land consolidation. Consequently, their average operational size which was 0.59 ha in 2007, has been on solid rise since then, and by 2013 it had climbed to 0.62 ha, and was last reported as 0.96 ha in 2016 [56, 57]. A recent study conducted in the Hubei Province of China found a greater role of digitalization in the process of increasing smallholder’ income, that improved production efficiency, broadened sales channels, and promoted upgradation of agricultural structure. The study puts emphasis on value addition of agri-produce and role of E-commerce platforms towards a sustainable model for the digital transformation [58]. Another study concerning sub-saharan African regions stresses on concurrent development of off-farm employment opportunities [59]. These examples are intended to emphasize the reality that each country has unique needs, and solutions must be custom-made to meet those needs, and that if Digital Agriculture is to be scalable and accessible each Indian farmers, it must be tailored to the demands of the average small-scale Indian farm.

8.3 Implication of E-governance on the Indian farmers’ ease of living

Presently, information and communication technology (ICT) and mobile-enabled agricultural services serve as tools for delivering extension services via mobile phone infrastructure and raising farmer awareness. In India, the rising penetration of mobile networks and devices present a great deal of opportunity [60]. But very first challenge is whether the farmers effectively adapt to such technologies, given the impediments of digital literacy, small holding size, and poor infrastructure, that often leads to poor technological acceptability. Further, traditional Indian marketplaces, for example, are controlled by market intermediaries and dealers, who determine the bulk of prices and on whom the majority of farmers rely for information [61]. As a result, growing agricultural production will demand a decision-making agricultural system based on information. Mere showcasing new technology in the controlled setting of a research farm may not be enough to persuade Indian farmers to use the technology since they have differing needs with limited resources. Furthermore, there appears to be a gap in demonstrating a link between profitable technology adoption and long-term agricultural output [62,63,64].

Although, farming apps are the most convenient modes of imparting useful information to farmers, IT illiteracy (linguistics and technology) is a big roadblock in their deployment and usability [65]. Additionally, a large populace is still having limited access and knowledge about ICT and mobile farming equipment [50, 66]. Several new apps are emerging in response to new requirements and challenges in agriculture and allied sector [67], which necessitates acquirement of specific skillset to determine of the respective usability of these apps, but there is a limited effort towards awareness and education campaigns [68]. Several other factors constrain farmers’ adoption of mobile phone technology, that includes mobile device costs, insufficient infrastructure, and language barriers [69, 70], lack of accurate & complete information, timely forecasts, climate smart technologies [71], and lastly a lack of practical exposure [72]. Such barriers must be overcome to realize the potential of digital agriculture for small holders. The recent Kisan Suvidha app is a step in the right direction and is being effectively utilized by farmers particularly in the Hindi belt area [67]. Advisory services should be up-to-date and relevant, providing timely forecasts related to weather, market, etc., and accurate information on weed management, plant protection, etc. providing short video messages wherever applicable. The elements of digital application interact with age, considerably exacerbating the difficulty of ensuring that products are created inclusively, hence this should be undeniably be a key consideration for facilitating widespread adoption of app-based services [69, 73].

8.4 Replication of similar modalities by agriculture-based E-applications

Aside from advanced digital technology available to farmers in affluent countries, farmers in developing countries, particularly smallholders, are rapidly embracing technologies, particularly those not incorporated in agricultural machinery, such as smartphone apps and internet platforms [74]. As the Indian administration advances towards enabling the farmers’ livelihoods and aim to double the incomes of farmers, there seems to be a rush in developing such digital applications [61]. Many such recently digital technologies and services were mapped at both the state and central levels, made available to farmers for buying inputs, for digital finance and for accessing farm management information as well as prices of inputs and outputs. In fact, a plethora of application have been launched within a short frame of time, hence, and determining the truly useful ones is a daunting task. This undoubtedly is an issue as it undermines the effort of other useful initiatives in terms of practicality. Further, it upsets the confidence level among the farmers and other poor communities, especially the women-centric enterprises, to whom such online applications have been targeted. So, extreme caution must be exercised while dealing with technology, since developing the technology might seem simple, but the security, robustness, reliability, availability, and usability of the app are unquestionably more complex [64]. Also, the task remains to examine the adoption and the impact of these digital agricultural technologies. On one hand there are exciting Indian innovations like ‘Uber for tractors’[75], Mahindra’s Trringo, EM3 Agri services’ Samadhan, Yuktix’s Gidabits [28], on the flip side, there is a widespread concern that digital agriculture will further increase the market power of large-scale agribusiness enterprises[41, 76]. As new companies enter the agricultural technology business, the ramifications of these new trends in digital technology supply on agricultural input industries, producers, farmworkers, and consumers remains to be explored [22]. Based on major aspects of numerous portals and applications launched by the Indian administration, a comparative analysis was conducted by us. According to the analysis, six of the ten portals (or apps) that we curated were involved in farmer profiling, either directly or indirectly. Furthermore, seven of these portals give agricultural market information, five supply fertilizer-related information, four provide soil testing and logistical support, three provide farm machinery information, and the other three provide animal husbandry information (Fig. 3). Accordingly, it can be reasoned that these services, in and of themselves, keep replicating similar functionalities.

Fig. 3
figure 3

Feature-based comparative analysis of agriculture-related apps and portals

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Adoption of technology is successful when it is customized to address specific challenges at the local level, when institutions and policies are supported to create an enabling ecosystem, and when the potential of these technologies is harnessed to scale and commercialize within a specific time frame [77]. Fortunately, the agro-tech start-up sector in India is starting to regain investor interest, and the best ever investment in India in the last 3 years was recently recorded [78].

9 Verticals of research and developments in the Indian agricultural sector

In the recent past, adoption of advanced technologies has helped small countries like Israel and Netherlands. Modern technologies such as sensors, imagery, or automation, still aren’t widely accepted in smallholder farming systems for a variety of issues including the economics involved [77]. Many remote farms and rural areas do not have quality Internet access and even with good connectivity, there are adoption challenges to overcome. To connect tractors, cameras, and other mechanical agro-equipment, the connectivity needs to be broadband, which is defined as 25 Mbps downlink, and 3 Mbps uplink (in the U.S). However, for precision agriculture technologies, uplink capacity needs to be greater than downlink, since most data is sent to the cloud [50]. Digital solutions for smallholder farmers need to be developed with a centralized approach keeping the economics practical. Currently, sensors are costly enough to be prone to theft in these geographies, additionally, these things have limited battery life, and access to energy could be a limiting factor. Also, tractors are often not a viable option for small-scale producers due to the high capital cost involved, and, Remote-sensing technologies and AI require the processing of large amounts of satellite imagery in the cloud, and a dependency on powerful GPUs further increases the cost of providing digital solutions.

So, there is an emerging need to invent technologies to accomplish these tasks on low-cost devices, which can only be feasible if the technology is home-grown [73]. In some cases, technology can be replaced by using less costly manual components or by adopting creative service-delivery business models. From an economic point of view, thorough technical interventions are needed for ample adaptation in the field of digital agriculture [79]. Figure 4 depicts the known technological inhibitory factors in the agriculture sector and suggests the category-based components that need to be worked upon to present an economical solution. More inputs in the research and development on the need-based areas duly considering the small-hold farmers is urgently needed [79, 80]. This would not only make the technologies more practical but also affordable in the long run, as more and more farmers would begin to adopt the technologies generating significant amounts of meaningful data [81].

Fig. 4
figure 4

Source: Adapted from [50]

Digital agricultural technologies that are categorized based on their resolve and need toward the smallholder farmers.

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9.1 Enhancing farming through fine-resolution advisories

Climatic change has surfaced as an imminent danger to the livelihoods of small-scale Indian farmers, who seem to be ill-informed and unable to deal with recent weather patterns and its effects on agriculture [82]. This needs the translation of climate data into knowledge that farmers can utilize, which will be successful if climate data is linked with current technology and best agricultural practices are implemented. The forecast agro-advisories are often for a larger area and do not scale down to the specific field or farm [50, 83]. Farmers use risk-averse management practices that lower production as a result of a lack of fine-scale knowledge [84]. Despite these failings, the present Agro-met arsenal has been primarily effective in sending key info directly to farmers [85]. However, when new interventions develop, such as satellite remote sensing, drone-based surveys, mobile-based data collecting systems, IoT-based sensors, and insights generated from crop hybridization and AI/ML models, they will be adopted progressively. These technology advances will create fine-scale static and dynamic Agro-met information on cultivated fields, which will be provided via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and other means [50]. Fortunately, in the recent years, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has achieved substantial advances in agriculture utilizing satellite remote sensing applications, particularly in the development of agro-met products, crop inventory using AI/ML, and yield estimate at various scales [85].

While mobile technologies have considerably aided in the delivery of services to residents, India appears to be moving in the right way in terms of technological adoption, with the construction of centers of excellence in Blockchain technology, AI, and data analytics [86].

10 Conclusion

Fundamentally, E-governance minimizes redundancy, but in a comparative analysis conducted on the major aspects of numerous e-portals and e-applications launched by the Indian administration, a sizeable level of functional redundancy was observed. Considering a lack of digital literacy, especially among rural and poor farmers, this poses a severe challenge towards adoption of technologies. Digital interventions must be carried out with extreme caution, while taking into account knowledge-based sustainable practices. The cost of technology, simplicity of access and operations, ease of system maintenance, prompt grievance redressal, and proper policy backing are the essential aspects that will decide the success of Digital Agriculture in India. There is also a need for comprehensive research and development through collaborations between the public and private sectors that take into account last-mile delivery and ground problems so that Digital Agriculture can really empower Indian farmers. The R&D needs to contribute towards solutions with a holistic architecture suitable for the local needs and better agricultural E-governance implementation. Additionally, India has a very dynamic market demand which necessitates the startups to constantly be perceptive and innovate. An agri-tech ecosystem should have a clear understanding of resolving major challenges as well as establishing linkages in the different domains like government-to-farmer (G2F), government-to-business (G2B), government-to-government (G2G), and business-to-farmer (B2F), and have a preference towards ensuring the last-mile connectivity, and digital skill development, while also accounting for the socio-economic impact. There is also a need to establish a path to successful commercialization and scale it up with the appropriate incentives and legislative support. This essentially calls for a multi-stakeholder strategy, with the government acting as a facilitator, leading to the adoption of a comprehensive and integrated ecosystem approach that addresses the sector's current impediments, particularly in order to meet national ambitions such as Doubling Farmer Income and achieving the SDGs.