Telangana: KTR's first Agricultural Data Exchange platform

The Agricultural Data Exchange (ADeX) and Agricultural Data Management Framework (ADMF) were initially introduced in India by the State of Telangana. ADeX is a product of a partnership between the Telangana government, the World Economic Forum, and the Indian Institute of Science. It was created as a digital public infrastructure (DPI) for the agriculture sector. The ADeX and ADMF were formally introduced here on Friday by IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao.

Speaking at the event, the Minister claimed that ADeX and ADMF offer the ideal platforms for ensuring the industry's and startups' ethical and effective use of agricultural data in addition to giving the data economy, notably in the argi-sector, a significant boost. According to him, these programs enable Telangana to take the lead nationally in transforming the nation's food systems and improving farmers' quality of life through innovation and technology.

Telangana changed from being a region prone to drought to becoming India's rice bowl. The Minister claimed that in addition to providing 24 hours of free power, it was the only State that was implementing Rythu Bima, an insurance program for farmers. The ADeX software platform enables secure, standards-based data interchange between users of agricultural data (such as agri application developers) and providers of agricultural data (such as governmental organizations, for-profit businesses, non-governmental organizations, universities, etc.).

It is a publicly available good that is open source, open standard, and interoperable, democratizing access to data and empowering both the public and private sectors to create products and provide services that benefit society. The ADeX Platform is now deployed in Khammam as part of the project's Phase-I and will subsequently be expanded to the entire State.

Similar to this, the State government introduced the ADMF, which was created following significant industry and public consultations on the critical facets of data management, innovation, and protection. Influenced by national rules and regulations as well as convergent international best practices. It is a flexible, futuristic platform designed to support consent-based, responsible data sharing.

All government agencies that deal with agricultural issues as well as all users and distributors of agricultural information must comply with ADMF. An Inter Departmental Committee is envisioned in the framework, and it will establish standard operating procedures and directives on important topics including access restrictions, data quality, and data service providers, etc.