India to Digitize Crop Estimation Process

October 20, 2023

The Indian government is set to modernize its crop area and production estimation process, recognizing the limitations of the current manual system, which often leads to delays and errors. As part of this initiative, the Centre has encouraged states and Union Territories to transition to the Digital Crop Survey system from July of the upcoming year.

Guidelines for Modernization

The Economics, Statistics, and Evaluation Division (ESED) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare has developed comprehensive guidelines for states and Union Territories to implement agricultural production estimates using digital technology. These guidelines aim to streamline the process and improve the accuracy of crop statistics.

Timeline for Digitization

According to the guidelines, all states and Union Territories are expected to automate and digitize the process of crop area enumeration and girdawari (a traditional method of land measurement) using the Digital Crop Survey system starting from the 2024-25 Agricultural Year. In India, the agricultural year begins in July and concludes in June of the following year.

Use of GPS-Enabled Mobile Applications

States and Union Territories are urged to utilize GPS-enabled mobile applications for collecting data on crop sowing for each plot during each season. The collected data should then be aggregated at the village level and shared with the Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare (DA&FW) through Application Programming Interface (API).

Current Manual Process

Presently, the collection and compilation of crop statistics in India are largely manual, resulting in delays and potential errors. Only a handful of states, such as Karnataka, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh, have adopted digital data collection systems using GPS-enabled mobile applications. There is a recognized need for technological intervention to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of the production estimation system.

Enhancing Data Reliability

The reliability of agricultural production data has been a subject of debate under the existing system. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman emphasized the importance of real-time assessment estimates of crops and acknowledged the need for improved data accuracy.

Key Parameters for Digital Crop Survey

As part of the Digital Crop Survey, states are required to collect essential parameters, including village names, year, season, farmer IDs, farm IDs, crop names at the farm plot level, crop varieties, crop sown areas at the farm plot level, geotags of crop photos, geotags of farm boundaries where crops are sown, sowing/planting dates at the farm plot level, irrigation types at the farm plot level, and irrigation sources at the farm plot level.

Revised Estimate Release Timelines

In addition to digitizing the crop estimation process, the Ministry has also revamped the release timelines for estimates. The earlier five-phase release system has been streamlined, eliminating the fourth phase released in August. The final estimates covering all states and all seasons (kharif, rabi, and summer) will now be released in September-October, a significant improvement from the previous release in February of the following year.

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