States Urged to Adopt Agri-Tech

On 22nd August 2024, Union Agriculture Secretary called on states to quickly implement technology-driven initiatives to enhance farm production estimates.

Key Points

Digital Crop Survey: The Digital Crop Survey aims to provide plot-level data with geotagged areas, ensuring accurate crop area estimation.
Yield Estimation: The Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES) calculates yield using scientifically designed Crop Cutting Experiments for major crops.
FASAL Programme: The revamped Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land based observations (FASAL) programme utilizes remote sensing technology to generate accurate crop maps and area estimation for 10 major crops.
Data Verification: The Unified Portal for Agricultural Statistics (UPAg Portal) allows cross-verification of agricultural data from multiple sources, ensuring robust statistics.
Real-Time Data: These initiatives are expected to provide near real-time, reliable data from the field, leading to precise crop production estimations.
Institutional Collaboration: The agriculture department is working with institutions like the Space Application Centre and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute to develop yield forecast models.
Increased Supervision: The department is collaborating with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation to enhance supervision of crop-cutting experiments.
Commitment to Reforms: The conference concluded with states agreeing on the importance of these reforms and committing to strengthening the agricultural statistical framework.