1.50 lakh farmers raise objections to crop survey data

As many as 1.50 lakh farmers in the state have raised objections to the data relating to crop survey done through the app Bele Darshak. The survey was conducted for kharif season (June to October).

The app contains details of all agricultural plots in the state - such as survey number, picture of the plot, the name of the farmer, his contact number, and the crop he is growing. This data is linked to all agriculture schemes of the government like Minimum Support Price (MSP) scheme and Karnataka Raitha Suraksha Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. There are 73 lakh farmers in the state. As many as 2.20 crore parcels of agricultural lands were surveyed for uploading their details on the app. Out of the total objections received, the surveyors have rejected 17,637.

Objections are raised when the crop that the farmer claims to have grown is different from the one recorded on the app. For example, the minimum support price for Ragi is Rs 3,150 per quintal in Chikkamagaluru district whereas the market price is Rs 2,300 per quintal only. The MSP varies from one district to the other.

A farmer is benefited if he sells the produce at a procurement centre of the government rather than in the open market. But when a farmer registers for the MSP scheme with the Farmer Registration and Unified Beneficiary Information System (FRUITS), the system takes data from Bele Darshak app. If the crop he wants to sell is not recorded on the app, he cannot go ahead with the sale at the purchase centre.

If his crop fails he also cannot claim crop insurance if the crop data is wrong Rajeev Chawla, Additional Chief Secretary, e-governance department (that anchors the app for the agriculture department), told DH, “The objections are less than one per cent of the plots surveyed and so that is not so bad. Any system will have small percentage of problems. Our 30,000-odd surveyors across the state have geo-stamped pictures of the plot that are date- and time-stamped. So when a farmer raises objection, it has to be because the surveyor failed to record a mixed crop pattern and recorded only one of the crops.” However, experts said the mixed crop explanation can go only so far as a limited number of crops can be mixed.

Dr Prakash Kammardi, former chairman, Karnataka Agricultural Price Commission, said, “Mixed crop is possible only in case of pulses and not all crops. For example, mixed crops are grown in Hyderabad Karnataka (Kalyana Karnataka) region. There’s no chance of mixing crops with maize, except let’s say black gram. A farmer cannot bring the produce of a crop he hasn’t grown. So the government should buy whatever he brings to the MSP purchase centre.”