Government to take inputs from tech-savvy villages to finish the crop survey

The Karnataka state government has made a decision to impart duties to tech-savvy villagers as an aid to the farmers and support the completion of app-based crop survey. The crop survey, where the farmers are supposed to upload details of their crop via a mobile app, is the first crop survey of this kind in India.

The crop survey 2020-21 was launched about a month ago. From the total 2.12 agricultural plots in Karnataka, 34% of progress which includes 73 lakh agricultural plots and their crop data is uploaded.

Agriculture Commissioner Brijesh Kumar Dikshit spoke to DH, “Our expectation is that we will still reach the one crore mark with the help of farmers alone…. Using private residents was a fallback option, which the government has decided to exercise now to push the rate up.”

Dikshit iterated that a private resident would be someone who is tech-savvy who has an Android-operating smartphone.

This crop survey is very important as it is a source of data for the policy makers aboutthe crops grown by 73 lakh-odd farmers in Karnataka. This information will help in framing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and insurance benefits.

From the data collected, Kodagu district with flood mishap has the lowest progress for the survey around 12.67%. Following the league are Bengaluru urban with 15.18 %, Bengaluru rural with 18.26 % and Mandya (19.57%).