Crop survey: Few takers for mobile app despite govt’s push

While the state government has announced crop survey for the kharif season and has encouraged farmers to upload details of their crops through a mobile app, a huge number of farmers have not yet taken to the
idea.

Last year, the government launched an app through which farmers could themselves upload details of their crops, without waiting for private residents (delegated by the state government) to physically survey the same. The app was introduced to empower farmers and to eliminate third party interference in uploading details of crops.

Agriculture Minister B C Patil recently invited farmers to make use of the government mobile app for crop survey for 2021-22. Through the app, farmers can upload details of the crops grown by clicking photos of it, add the survey number of their land, among other details.

“There are already awareness programmes being conducted in all districts in this regard,” he said, encouraging farmers to embrace
technology.

However, several farmers still prefer the traditional method of a physical survey done with the help of officials. A farmer and Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha member Devaraj said, many farmers were still intimidated by making use of phone for the purpose. “A lot of us are scared that we might make mistakes while uploading,” he explained.

Veeresh Sobaradamath, who leads Karnataka Riatha Sene, said the mobile app, although useful to ensure accuracy in data, needed supervision of officials. “Not all farmers are comfortable using phones for uploading data. They have to inevitably depend on a younger member in the family. Also, to ensure accuracy, government officials must supervise the data uploading on the ground-level,” Sobaradamath said, alleging that the government-appointed private residents for the survey were often hand in glove with insurance companies.

Nonetheless, the state government saw an encouraging response to the mobile app last year, according to Brijesh Kumar Dixit, Commissioner of Agriculture. “We were pleasantly surprised. There are 2.20 crore agricultural lots in the Karnataka, of which the crop survey for almost 80 lakh was done through the mobile app last kharif,” he said. For those who either do not own an android phone or do not know how to use the app, the government has kept the option open to get the survey done by the private residents.