1.93 Cr Farm Fields To Be Photographed as Part of Digital Agri Survey
10,000 volunteers to photograph 1.93 cr fields across 10,622 villages
Hyderabad: The agriculture department’s ongoing digital crop registration exercise promises to be the first of its kind in the state. It will not only cover all 10,622 revenue villages in Telangana but, for the first time, will also involve photographs being taken of 1.93 crore farm fields, which will become part of the records for the Kharif crop season.
The exercise, part of the Government of India’s Agri Stack digital farmland and crop information infrastructure, is aimed at streamlining agricultural governance, improving services and providing farmers with unique digital identities. Telangana is also registering data on the different crops being grown by farmers and has said that procurement at the end of the season will be linked to farmers registering their crop data during the exercise.
“This is a huge task as there are 1,93,25,309 farm fields in the state that we want to cover, a task that is not possible with just 2,600 agriculture extension officers (AEOs). Though each officer is tasked with covering 5,000 farms, which make up one cluster, it is not easy,” a senior agriculture department official said.
Since the survey and crop registration are being carried out using a phone app — one that works even when there is no phone signal and syncs the data once the device is back in signal range — the department has roped in around 10,000 volunteers attached to the AEOs.
In return for their work, the volunteers, at least one from each revenue village, will be paid ₹7 for each farm photograph they take using the app. The app, the official said, will link the registered data to land survey records and geo-reference it.
The data captured by the volunteers will be cross-checked by the AEOs. Each farmer will also receive a message on their phone containing their land and crop data, enabling them to seek corrections if they notice any errors, the official said.
Since the messages can be sent to non-smartphones, farmers without smartphones will also receive the alerts, the official added.
