New Delhi, 2 Sept

The Union Cabinet on Monday approved an outlay of Rs 2,817 crore to support digital initiatives in the agriculture sector, aimed at enhancing farmers' income and providing direct-indirect employment opportunities in the sector.

"The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the Digital Agriculture Mission today with an outlay of Rs 2,817 crore, including the central share of Rs 1,940 crore," according to an official statement.

This scheme is one of the seven programmes approved by the Cabinet with an outlay of nearly Rs 14,000 crore.

The Digital Agriculture Mission is "conceived as an umbrella scheme to support digital agriculture initiatives, such as creating digital public infrastructure, implementing the Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES), and taking up other IT initiatives by the central government, state governments, and academic and research institutions".

The aim is to make timely and reliable information available for the agriculture sector and provide farmer-centric digital service. Digital identity to farmers, similar to Aadhaar, is one of the key components of these digital initiatives.

To bring about a digital revolution in the farm sector, the government announced the building of Digital Public Infrastructure for agriculture in the Union Budget 2023-24. Further, in the Budget 2024-25, the augmentation of the DPI initiative for the agricultural sector has also been announced.

"The Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for agriculture aims to provide comprehensive and useful data on farmers comprising authenticated demographic details, land holdings and crops sown," the statement said, adding this will include cultivators and tenant farmers, as per the policy of the state government.

It would also connect to relevant DPI of the state governments and central ministries to use data of farmers on livestock, fisheries, soil health, other vocations, family details and schemes and benefits availed, leading to innovative farmer-centric digital services in the sector.

"Aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047, the DPI for agriculture forms the core of the Digital Agriculture Mission," the government said.

The three DPIs to be built under the mission are Agristack, Krishi Decision Support System, and Soil Profile Mapping.

"Besides enabling farmer-centric digital services, these DPIs will make timely and reliable information available for the agriculture sector,"

Out of these three DPIs, the AgriStack is a farmer-centric DPI that will enable efficient, easier, and faster services and scheme delivery to farmers. It is being built in a federated structure as a collaborative project between various agencies of the Centre and States.

It consists of three foundational registries or databases in the agriculture sector, which are -- Farmers’ Registry, Geo-referenced village maps and the Crop Sown Registry, created and maintained by the State Governments/ Union Territories.

"Under AgriStack, farmers will be given a digital identity (Farmer ID) similar to Aadhaar, which will be a trusted 'Kisan ki Pehchaan'," the statement said.

This 'Farmer ID' will be linked dynamically to the State's land records, livestock ownership, crops sown, demographic details, family details, schemes and benefits availed etc.

Crops sown by farmers will be recorded through mobile-based ground surveys i.e. Digital Crop Survey to be conducted in each season.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is being signed between the centre and state governments to create and implement the DPI for agriculture. So far, 19 states have signed MoUs with the Union Agriculture Ministry.

The basic IT infrastructure for implementing AgriStack has been developed and already tested on a pilot basis.

For the creation of Farmer IDs, pilots have been conducted in one district each across 6 States: Uttar Pradesh (Farrukhabad), Gujarat (Gandhinagar), Maharashtra (Beed), Haryana (Yamuna Nagar), Punjab (Fatehgarh Sahib), and Tamil Nadu (Virudhnagar).

"It is targeted to create digital identities for 11 crore farmers: six crore farmers in FY 2024-25, three crore farmers in FY 2025-26, and two crore farmers in FY 2026-27", the statement said.

For the development of the Crop Sown Registry, a pilot on the Digital Crop Survey was conducted in 11 states in 2023-24. Further, it is targeted to launch the Digital Crop Survey across the nation within two years, with 400 districts covered in FY 2024-25 and all the districts covered in FY 2025-26.

The Krishi Decision Support System will create a comprehensive geospatial system to unify remote sensing-based information on crops, soil, weather and water resources among others.

Under the Mission, detailed Soil Profile Maps on a 1:10,000 scale of about 142 million hectares of agricultural land are envisaged to be completed. A detailed soil profile inventory of about 29 million hectares has already been completed.

The Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES) will provide yield estimates based on scientifically designed crop-cutting experiments.

"The Mission will have a catalytic effect in creating both direct and indirect employment in the agriculture sector," the government said.

Digital crop surveys and data collection for remote sensing are expected to provide employment opportunities to about 2.5 lakh trained local youth and Krishi Sakhis.

The Mission aims to make service delivery mechanisms more efficient and transparent for the farmers and other stakeholders, by leveraging trustful data and using modern digital technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Citing an example, the government said, "a farmer would be able to digitally identify and authenticate himself/herself to access benefits and services, obviating cumbersome paperwork and with little or no need to physically visit various offices or service providers."

The reliable data would help government agencies make schemes and services more efficient and transparent, such as paperless MSP-based procurement, crop insurance, and credit card-linked crop loans. It will help develop systems for the balanced use of fertilizers. -PTI