A new service delivery model to unlock growth: Strategic advice to governments about their digital agriculture portfolios

As part of our response to increasing partner demand and in order to scale evidence-based innovations, we’ve launched a new service model: embedding teams within government organizations to provide strategic advice about digital agriculture. These embedded teams are scaling proven innovations, guiding program design, advising the government on how to effectively leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and new technologies, and assessing program quality to ensure the long-term impact of programs. These teams draw on PxD’s years of experience in generating evidence, implementing services, and institutionalizing services within governments, and shape how digital agriculture programs reach tens of millions of smallholder farmers.

Advising the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in India 

PxD set up its first Program Management Unit (PMU) within the MoA&FW in early 2024. This PMU focuses on three key workstreams: (i) supporting policy, and institutionalizing decision-making systems within MoA&FW’s digital agriculture agenda, (ii) securing at-scale adoption of promising digital agriculture solutions, facilitating interoperability, and ensuring alignment across program offerings, and (iii) assessing program quality, building feedback loops, and facilitating innovation to maximize the impact on farmers. 

Key Achievements in 2024 include:

Launched a steering committee as a governance mechanism, with a diverse membership of government officials, industry leaders, and academic experts, to oversee the digital agriculture portfolio. This committee convened multiple times in 2024, and discussed local AI innovation for agriculture, specific needs within MoA&FW, data privacy, integration of various AI technologies into ongoing efforts, and much more. 

Facilitated the development of an open and federated digital network for agriculture, by securing seven state partnerships and testing the compliance of two state-owned solutions, thus paving the way for sustainable and democratic access to information for millions of farmers across the country. 

Assessed the effectiveness of a suite of digital agriculture tools—including a pest surveillance tool, a chatbot on government agriculture schemes, and an AI-based tool to prompt tele-agents that support farmer queries—and worked with partners and government to iteratively improve the effectiveness and increase the scale of these tools. The PMU also facilitated the integration of these tools with solutions being run by state governments—for example, by driving alignment on the types of scheme information provided across platforms—thus extending the reach and integration of these tools. 

Provided policy support for the creation of foundational AI systems including by facilitating inter-ministerial collaboration, connecting MoA&FW with subject matter experts and institutes, crowding in funding to launch new initiatives, and developing the internal capacity needed to maintain and oversee this portfolio.

With its foundation solidly in place, in 2025 the PMU will focus on:

• Institutionalizing feedback loops across MoA&FW’s portfolio, enabling rapid monitoring and feedback collection, and facilitating data-driven decision-making across services.
• Strengthening the integration between federal and state government efforts to showcase innovations that are delivering impacts, facilitating integration to unlock effective scale-up, and sharing learnings. 
• Building an operational toolkit and learning agenda to ensure the long-term sustainability of this work, and to facilitate replication in other geographies. 

Launching a new Program Management Unit in Ethiopia in 2025 

In 2024, PxD made significant strides in supporting the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) in advancing its digital agriculture vision. A major milestone was the development of Ethiopia’s Digital Agriculture Roadmap (DAR) by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), with the support of the Boston Consulting Group, PxD, and other partners. The DAR provides a strategic blueprint designed to drive the country’s digital transformation in agriculture. 

Building on this achievement, PxD will spearhead the establishment of a PMU embedded within the GoE to turn this vision into reality, starting early in 2025. The PMU will focus on two major workstreams—establishing a permanent Digital Agriculture Unit within the MoA that can oversee the DAR in the long-term, and kickstarting the implementation of a set of priority use-cases and of initiatives to deliver a suite of digital agriculture services to smallholder farmers across Ethiopia. With an ambitious agenda, the PMU will drive coordination across government agencies, donors, non-profit organizations, and the private sector, thereby ensuring alignment and investment in Ethiopia’s most impactful digital agriculture initiatives.