The Cabinet approved seven schemes for the farm sector with an outlay of Rs 13,966 crores to modernise farming operations and make it climate resilient by leveraging space and digital technology, managing natural resources more sustainably, strengthening agri extension centres and using crop sciences to ensure food & nutritional security. Digital Agri Mission with allocation of Rs 2,817 crores is the key component of the programme, which will create a robust Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for the farm sector using Agri Stack (farmers registry, village land maps registry and crop acreage registry), AI and Big Data.
The move, comprising tech-based crop yield estimation system (YES-TECH), will help in doing away with the age-old random sampling and visual assessments approach, fraught with inaccuracy, which have been in practice with certain variations over the time since the Mughal period. The digital crop survey using geospatial data will, on the other hand, establish a clear picture of crops being sown during the different agriculture seasons. All this tech-based data will feed into the agriculture Ministryʼs ʻKrishi-Decision Support Systemʼ (DSS), providing all farm-related info at a single platform for helping farmers and policymakers. The data will also ensure quick disbursal of crop loan and insurance claims to farmers.
