Why in the News?

Emphasizing the current manual nature of crop area and production estimation, the Central Government has urged states and Union Territories (UTs) to transition to a digital approach by implementing the Digital Crop Survey System starting in July next year.

About the Digital Crop Survey:

• As a part of the Digital Crop Survey initiative, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) has instructed states to capture data on essential parameters, encompassing:
• Village name, year, season, farmer ID, farm ID,
• Crop name (at the farm plot level),
• Crop variety,
• Crop sown area (at the farm plot level),
• Geotags of crop photos,
• Geotags of the farm boundary where the crop is cultivated,
• Sowing/planting date (at the farm plot level),
• Irrigation type (at the farm plot level), and
• Irrigation source (at the farm plot level).
• This directive follows the introduction of a pilot Digital Crop Survey across multiple states earlier this year.
• In a parallel initiative, the MoA&FW has also revised the release timelines for crop estimates.
• Previously conducted in five phases, the ministry has streamlined the process by eliminating the fourth phase traditionally released in August.
• The ministry now plans to unveil comprehensive final estimates encompassing all states and seasons (kharif, rabi, summer) in September-October, departing from the earlier practice of releasing final estimates in February of the subsequent year.

Guidelines for the Digital Crop Survey:

• According to sources, the Economics, Statistics and Evaluation Division (ESED) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW), has finalised the guidelines.
• According to the guidelines, all states/ UTs shall automate/digitise the process of area enumeration/girdawari of crops at field level, i.e., Digital Crop Survey, from 2024-25 Agricultural Year.
• In India, the agriculture year begins in July and ends in June, the following year.
• Under the guidelines, states and UTs shall use GPS-enabled mobile applications for collecting crop-sown data of each plot for each season and share the village-level aggregated data with DA&FW through API only.

Need for the Digital Crop Survey:

• The current methodology for gathering and consolidating crop statistics relies entirely on manual processes across most states, leading to delays and human errors in the data compilation.
• Only a handful of states, such as Karnataka, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh, have embraced a digital approach to data collection through GPS-enabled mobile applications, particularly for the recording of crop area and Collection of Cost of Cultivation and Equipment Survey (CCEs) data directly from the fields.
• While Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have implemented digital systems, they are primarily focused on recording crop areas.
• India faces a challenge due to the lack of dependable agricultural production estimates, accentuating the necessity for a "real-time assessment estimate" of crops.
• Recognizing this gap, there is a compelling need to modernize the current production estimation system by incorporating technological interventions.