Government launches digital crop survey in 12 states on pilot basis

The Centre has launched digital crop survey in 12 states on a pilot basis from kharif (summer-sown) season of this year for better sowing data collection.

"Government has launched pilot on Digital Crop Survey (DCS) in the 12 states from Kharif -2023," agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

DCS reference application has been developed as an open source, open standard and inter operable public good, he sad.

"Further, geo-referenced cadastral maps with Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) Technologies are used to ensure the farmland position," Tomar said.

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The 12 states selected for pilot on DCS are Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Odisha, Assam and Telangana, the minister informed.

The states have been selected based on the preparedness in respect of pre-requisite criteria for DCS i.e. geo-referencing of village map and digitised Record of Right (RoR) with ownership extent.

The project aims "to create a single and verified source of truth about the crop sown data which is useful for accurate crop area estimation and development of various farmers centric solutions", Tomar said.

In reply to a separate query, Tomar said the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched Resourcesat -2A, Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT) – 1A (Earth Observation Satellite-04) in polar orbits and Indian National Satellite (INSAT) 3D, INSAT-3DR in geostationary orbits.

These are aimed to provide data for enabling support for various agricultural activities such as assessing total area under cultivation, damage from natural calamities and disease attacks and agro-met services across the country.

That apart, he said the ISRO has proposed the launch of Resourcesat-3 & 3A medium resolution satellite with combined repitivity of 2 days; Resourcesat-3S & 3SA high resolution satellite with 4 days revisit capability; RISAT-1B can image day and night and all-weather conditions. RISAT-1B along with RISAT- 1A will cover same area by around 12 days; and INSAT – 3DS in geostationary orbit with coarse resolution and daily multiple imaging capability.