Cabinet approves the Digital Agriculture Mission with an outlay of Rs. 2817 Cr

The Mission is conceived as an umbrella scheme to support digital agriculture initiatives, such as creating Digital Public Infrastructure, implementing the Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES).

The Union Cabinet Committee chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the Digital Agriculture Mission with an outlay of Rs. 2817 Crore, including the central share of Rs. 1940 Crore. The Mission is conceived as an umbrella scheme to support digital agriculture initiatives, such as creating Digital Public Infrastructure, implementing the Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES), and taking up other IT initiatives by the Central Government, State Governments, and Academic and Research Institutions.

For a transformation of the Agriculture Sector, the government announced the building of Digital Public Infrastructure for agriculture in the Union Budget 2023-24. Further, in the Budget 2024-25, the augmentation of the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) initiative for the agricultural sector has also been announced. The Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for Agriculture aims to provide comprehensive and useful data on farmers comprising of authenticated demographic details, land holdings and crops sown. It will include cultivators & tenant farmers, as per the policy of the State Government. It would also connect to relevant Digital Public Infrastructure of the State Governments and Ministries of the Government of India to use data of farmers on livestock, fisheries, soil health, other vocations, family details and schemes and benefits availed, leading to innovative farmer-centric digital services in the agriculture sector. Aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047, the DPI for Agriculture forms the core of the Digital Agriculture Mission.

 The three DPIs to be built under the Mission are Agristack, Krishi Decision Support System, and Soil Profile Mapping. Besides enabling farmer-centric digital services, these DPIs will make timely and reliable information available for the agriculture sector.

AgriStack is a farmer-centric DPI that will enable efficient, easier, and faster services and scheme delivery to farmers. It is being built in a federated structure as a collaborative project between the various agencies of the Central and State Governments

The Krishi Decision Support System will create a comprehensive geospatial system to unify remote sensing-based information on Crops, Soil, Weather, water resources, etc.

Under the Mission, detailed Soil Profile Mapson a 1:10,000 scale of about 142 million ha of the country’s agricultural land is envisaged to be completed. A detailed soil profile inventory of about 29 million ha has already been completed.

The Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES) will provide yield estimates based on scientifically designed crop-cutting experiments. This initiative will prove very useful in making accurate estimates of agricultural production.

The Mission is conceived as an umbrella