New Tech Initiatives to Revolutionize Agricultural Data Accuracy

Agriculture Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi urges states to adopt technology-driven initiatives like the Digital Crop Survey and revamped FASAL program to enhance farm production estimates and data accuracy. He stressed continuous collaboration between central and state governments for robust agricultural statistics. The initiatives aim for accurate, real-time crop data collection.

Agriculture Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi on Thursday urged states to swiftly adopt and implement new technology-driven initiatives to enhance farm production estimates and improve data accuracy.

Addressing a national conference, Chaturvedi emphasized the need for continuous collaboration between the central and state governments to elevate the quality of agricultural statistics. The newly introduced initiatives, including the Digital Crop Survey, Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES), and the revamped FASAL program, are expected to bring more precision to crop data.

The Digital Crop Survey aims to provide plot-level data with geotagged areas of crops, creating an accurate crop area estimation. The DGCES is designed to calculate yield using scientifically crafted Crop Cutting Experiments for major crops across the nation. The enhanced FASAL program leverages remote sensing technology to produce precise crop maps and area estimates for 10 key crops.

The conference also presented the UPAg Portal, which allows cross-verification of data from multiple sources, ensuring robust agricultural statistics. The agriculture ministry expects these initiatives to deliver near real-time and reliable data directly from the field, leading to more precise crop production estimates.

Collaboration with institutions like the Space Application Centre and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute aims to develop yield forecast models. Additionally, efforts are underway with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation to increase supervision of crop-cutting experiments by the National Sample Survey Office. The conference concluded with a consensus on the importance of these reforms and commitments from all states to fortify the agricultural statistical framework. Officials asserted that adopting digital surveys and advanced technologies will enhance data collection efficiency, minimize discrepancies, and inform better policy-making in the agricultural sector.

(With inputs from agencies.)