Agriculture is becoming a data business
Indian agriculture is moving steadily onto digital rails. On 2 September 2024 the Union Cabinet approved the Digital Agriculture Mission with an outlay of ₹2,817 crore, according to the Press Information Bureau. The mission is built on two pillars, AgriStack and the Krishi Decision Support System, alongside soil profile mapping. AgriStack comprises a Farmers’ Registry, geo-referenced village maps and a Crop Sown Registry, and introduces a Farmer ID created and maintained by States and Union Territories.
For agribusinesses, farmer producer organisations, input companies, lenders and AgriTech ventures, this creates both an opportunity and an expectation: services increasingly need to be digital, traceable and data-driven, while still working for users in the field with basic phones and weak signal.
Twara Technologies designs, engineers and operates software and connected devices for this environment, from sensors on the farm to the platforms that buyers, managers and partners use.
What we build
IoT for farms, storage and logistics
Low-power sensor nodes and gateways for soil, weather, water and storage conditions; controllers for pumps and valves; and the device management needed to keep a dispersed fleet healthy. We choose connectivity per site, and design enclosures, power and mounting with the operating environment in mind. See IoT solutions.
Mobile apps for farmers and field teams
Offline-first apps for registration, advisory, procurement, input sales and visit tracking. Local language support, large touch targets, images and voice input reduce training effort. See mobile app development.
Web platforms
Traceability systems, FPO and dealer management portals, B2B marketplaces and programme dashboards with role-based access for farmers, staff, buyers and partners. See web development.
Data, cloud and AI
Data platforms for plot boundaries, time-series sensor data and imagery-derived indices, and machine learning for advisories, pest alerts, yield estimation and demand planning. We are explicit about the uncertainty in any prediction and keep agronomists in the loop. See cloud services and AI and machine learning.
Compliance and data considerations
Agricultural systems often hold farmers’ identity details, phone numbers, land and crop information, bank details and location data. This section is general information, not legal advice.
Personal data. Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the organisation deciding why and how data is processed (the Data Fiduciary) remains responsible under section 8(1) for processing carried out on its behalf, and section 8(2) allows it to engage a Data Processor only under a valid contract. That matters when field agents, partner organisations or app vendors collect data for you. Consent requests must come with a clear notice, and section 5(3) requires giving the person the option to access that notice in English or any language specified in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution, which makes regional-language design a compliance matter as well as a usability one. The DPDP Rules, 2025 set out security safeguards and breach-notification steps, including a detailed report to the Data Protection Board within seventy-two hours of becoming aware of a breach. See our DPDP guide.
Cyber incidents. CERT-In’s Directions of 28 April 2022 list attacks on IoT devices and associated systems, and on systems related to drones, among incidents that body corporates must report within 6 hours of noticing them. The same Directions require ICT system logs to be kept for a rolling 180 days within Indian jurisdiction. We design device and platform logging to support this. See our CERT-In explainer.
Device security. Field devices are physically accessible to anyone. We apply unique credentials per device, signed firmware updates, encrypted communication and least-privilege cloud access as standard. Our IoT security checklist explains the approach.
Integrations commonly needed
- ERP, accounting and warehouse management systems
- Payment gateways, UPI collections and bank payout APIs for farmer payments
- SMS, IVR and messaging providers for advisories and alerts
- Weather data services and satellite imagery providers
- Mapping and geospatial services for plot boundaries and routing
- Government and programme platforms, where documented interfaces and authorisation exist
How an engagement typically starts
We begin with field discovery: who the users are, where they work, what devices and connectivity they have, and which decisions the data needs to support. Where hardware is involved, a site survey covers coverage, power and installation conditions.
Discovery typically produces:
- user profiles for farmers, field staff, managers and partners, with their devices, languages and connectivity;
- a data inventory covering personal, land, crop and payment data, with purpose and retention for each;
- a hardware and connectivity recommendation per site type, with power and maintenance assumptions;
- an architecture for offline sync, device management and data storage; and
- success measures agreed in advance, such as data completeness, device uptime or advisory reach.
The usual next step is a pilot timed to an agricultural season, with a defined group of farms, a collection centre or a district. It tests hardware durability, offline behaviour, data quality and adoption. Results feed a rollout plan with realistic costs for devices, connectivity and support. Contact us to discuss your programme.