DIGITAL AGRICULTURE MISSION

DIGITAL AGRICULTURE MISSION

The Government has approved the Digital Agriculture Mission in September 2024. The Mission envisages the creation of a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for Agriculture, such as AgriStack, Krishi Decision Support System (KDSS), and a comprehensive Soil Fertility & Profile Map to enable a robust digital agriculture ecosystem in the country. This, in turn, would drive innovative farmer-centric digital solutions and make reliable crop-related information available to all farmers on time. The AgriStack DPI consists of three foundational registries or databases associated with the agriculture sector, i.e., Geo-Referenced Village Maps, Crop Sown Registry and the Farmers Registry, all created and maintained by the State Governments/ Union Territories.

Farmer Registry provides comprehensive and useful data on farmers’ demographic details, land holdings, and crops sown, enabling farmers to digitally identify and authenticate them for accessing benefits and services such as credit, insurance, procurement etc. It also enables state to design solutions that open access for farmers to the digital economy such as Purchase and Sell of Inputs and Produce online in a trustful manner. Digital Crop Survey (DCS) System provides accurate, real-time crop area information for every agricultural plot.

Krishi-DSS integrates and standardizes geospatial and non-geospatial data, including satellite, weather, soil, crop signatures, reservoir, and groundwater data, along with government scheme information. Krishi-DSS offers crop maps, soil maps, automated yield estimation models, drought/flood monitoring systems, etc, which support evidence-based decision-making by the government and facilitate innovative solutions by research institutions and the agritech industry.

Further, a nationwide Soil Resource Mapping project has been initiated by the Soil and Land Use Survey of India (SLUSI), which is inventorying soils at a village level at 1:10,000 scale using high-resolution satellite and ground data to standardized soil maps for rational land use and crop planning to promote sustainable agriculture.

Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) is implementing the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) in the Country from 2015-16. PDMC focuses on enhancing water use efficiency at the farm level through Micro Irrigation, namely Drip and Sprinkler Irrigation Systems. The Micro Irrigation helps in water saving as well as reducing fertilizer usage through fertigation, labour expenses, other input costs and overall income enhancement of farmers.

The Government provides financial assistance @ 55% for small and marginal farmers and @ 45% for other farmers for installation of Drip and Sprinkler systems under the PDMC. Besides State Government, also provide Top-up subsidy to farmers from their State Budget. The Assistance for installation of Micro Irrigation systems is limited to 5 hectares per beneficiary.

This information was given by Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Ramnath Thakur in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.