Amazon, Microsoft, Jio, ITC—the biggest names in the industry—are all gearing up to harness India’s agritech industry. Recently, the government signed preliminary agreements with all four to share farm statistics in an attempt to enhance productivity.

The agreement is that the companies will help the government to develop prototypes for all kinds of easily-accessible services. If the prototypes prove successful, they will be able to sell the final products to the government and a sector that is makes up a fifth of India’s economy.

The private sector is expected to provide the boost Indian agriculture is looking for, using artificial intelligence and data analytics to spot and understand trends with information such as crop pattern, soil health, insurance, credit, and weather patterns. This will lead to services tailored to the sector’s needs.

This is also a rewarding deal for private sector, with multiple avenues of success. First, there is the industry, which is estimated to reach about $24 billion in revenue by 2025. Moreover, both Amazon and Reliance have expanded their focus on groceries, and this segue could unlock the space. “This is a high impact industry and private players are sensing the opportunity and want to be a large part of it," says Ankur Pahwa, a partner at consultancy EY India. “India has a very high amount of food wastage because of lack of technology and infrastructure. So there’s a huge upside to the program."

The timing can prove tricky for the government, lately facing fire for previous reforms. In a country where privatisation tends to be demonised, the image of the ‘poor, helpless farmer’ is quickly invoked to paint a moral battle between the good and the evil. The agreement, ironically including the ‘mean tech giants’ Amazon and Reliance, may fuel the protests further, at a time when key state elections are coming up.