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Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced the implementation of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in agriculture, with farmers across the country and their lands to be covered in three years. Using the DPI, digital crop survey of the ongoing Kharif season will be done in 400 districts, she said.
In her Budget speech, Sitharaman said the government was “buoyed by the success of the pilot project”, and that it would facilitate the implementation of DPI in partnership with states.
“During this year, digital crop survey for Kharif using the DPI will be taken up in 400 districts. The details of 6 crore farmers and their lands will be brought into the farmer and land registries,” the minister said.
According to sources, the DPI in agriculture is aimed at enabling the “development of innovative farmer-centric digital services” and to make “timely and reliable” agricultural information available.
Sitharaman had announced the creation of DPI for agriculture in her Budget speech last year.
“Digital Public Infrastructure for agriculture will be built as an open source, open standard and interoperable public good. This will enable inclusive, farmer-centric solutions through relevant information services for crop planning and health, improved access to farm inputs, credit, and insurance, help for crop estimation, market intelligence, and support for growth of agri-tech industry and start-ups,” she said while presenting the Union Budget 2023-24 on February 1, last year.
Since then, Agriculture Ministry officials have been working to roll out different pilot projects under DPI in coordination with the state governments.
Sources said that DPI for agriculture comprises three broad components – AgriStack, Krishi-DSS, and Soil Profile Maps.
Under AgriStack, three foundational registries will be prepared. These are — farmers’ registry, which is an Aadhaar-like unique ID for farmers linked dynamically with land records; crops sown registry, based on digital crop survey of crops sown by farmers in their fields; and geo-referenced maps of villages. The farmers’ registry has already been rolled out as a pilot project in one district each in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra in the last financial year. During the current financial year, the Centre plans to enroll 6 crore farmers. In addition to this, 3 crore farmers will be enrolled in 2025-26 and 2 crore in 2026-27, the sources said.
Sources also said that these registries under DPI in agriculture will provide farmers easy access to government schemes and services like MSP-based procurement, crop insurance, and crop loans. It will also allow them to receive customised advisory services as per their crops, land, soil, and agro-climatic conditions, the sources said.
Sitharaman’s announcement of a digital crop survey covering 6 crore farmers across 400 districts from the ongoing Kharif season is significant as it will overhaul the crop area and production estimation system. Last year, the Centre had asked states and Union Territories to automate/digitise the process of area enumeration/Girdawari of crops at field level by adopting a digital crop survey. A pilot project was also rolled out across 12 states.
In the Budget speech, Sitharaman said provisions of Rs 1.52 lakh crore were made for agriculture and allied sectors this year.
Among her announcements was that the issuance of Jan Samarth-based Kisan Credit Cards would be enabled in five states.
Sitharaman also allocated Rs 500 crore for Namo Drone Didi scheme, an initiative aimed at providing drones to 15,000 selected women’s self-help groups.
She also announced that the government would bring out a National Cooperation Policy for systematic, orderly and all-round development of the cooperative sector.
“Fast-tracking growth of rural economy and generation of employment opportunities on a large scale will be the policy goal,” she said.
On shrimp production and export, Sitharaman said, “Financial support for setting up a network of Nucleus Breeding Centres for shrimp broodstocks will be provided. Financing for shrimp farming, processing and export will be facilitated through NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development).”
On natural farming, Sitharaman said, “In the next two years, 1 crore farmers across the country will be initiated into natural farming supported by certification and branding. Implementation will be through scientific institutions and willing gram panchayats. 10,000 need-based bio-input resource centres will be established.”
She also announced that new 109 high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties of 32 field and horticulture crops will be released for cultivation by farmers.
“Our government will undertake a comprehensive review of the agriculture research setup to bring the focus on raising productivity and developing climate resilient varieties. Funding will be provided in challenge mode, including to the private sector. Domain experts both from the government and outside will oversee the conduct of such research,” she said.
