Digital Agriculture Mission

17.06.2024

Digital Agriculture Mission

Why in the news?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

The Union government will announce a Rs 2,800 crore Digital Agriculture Mission.

About Digital Agriculture Mission

•  It will pave the way for creation of a nationwide farmers registry, crop sown registry, and georeferencing of village maps.
• A budgetary allocation of Rs 28,00 crore has been made for the mission and it will be rolled out over the next two years (till 2025-26).
•  The launch of the mission was initially planned in 2021-22 but due to Covid-19 outbreak, it could not be rolled out nationally.

Components of the Mission

• One of the components of the mission is to create a farmers’ registry, in which every farmer will be given a unique ID
• The mission also envisages a crop sown registry.
• This will have a record of crops sown by a farmer on his land.
• It will help better planning and estimation of crop production.

Progress of the mission

• A pilot project has been undertaken across 6 districts — Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh, Beed in Maharashtra, Gandhinagar in Gujarat, Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab, and Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu.
• Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have already started generation of farmers’ ID.
• The unique farmer ID will allow launch of new value-added services and farmers will be able to avail various government schemes including PM-Kisan and Fasal Bima Yojana through this ID.
•  It will also enable them to avail financial services like farm loans and insurance.

Importance of the mission

• The adoption of digital technologies can help India to increase agricultural productivity, reduce waste, increase agricultural export, increase farmers’ income and improve food and nutrition security.
• Apart from this, this will help in protecting the environment and sustainable development of the overall agricultural sector.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be a tool for farmers to detect crop anomalies , predict the weather,analyze soil quality, and provide required solutions
• Therefore ,The Digital Agriculture Mission aims to encourage and speed up projects based on cutting-edge technologies, including AI, blockchain, remote sensing, robots, and drones.

                                                  Source: Indian Express

Ques :- With reference to the Digital Agriculture Mission, consider the following statements:

1.The launch of the mission was initially planned in 2021-22 but due to Covid-19 outbreak.

2. It will pave the way for creation of a nationwide farmers registry, crop sown registry, and georeferencing of village maps.

3.It will be rolled out over the next two years (till 2025-26).

How many of the statements given above are correct?

A.Only one

B.Only two

C.All three

D.None

Answer C