The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, GoI, under the chairmanship of Devesh Chaturvedi, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, recently convened a national conference in New Delhi. The event brought together senior officials from all states to discuss and deliberate on the latest initiatives aimed at improving agriculture statistics across the country. These initiatives aim to enhance the accuracy, reliability, and transparency of agricultural statistics, which are crucial for policy formulation, trade decisions and agricultural planning.
The primary focus of the conference was on the enhancement of agricultural production estimates and the integration of technology to strengthen data accuracy. The Digital Crop Survey announced in the present year Budget Speech paves the way for accurate Crop Area Estimation. It will provide plot-level data with geotagged areas of crops and acts as a single source of truth.
Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES) has been initiated to calculate yield based on scientifically designed Crop Cutting Experiments for all major crops across the country. These initiatives are expected to provide near real-time and reliable data directly from the field, which enabling more precise estimations of crop production. The conference underscored the need for integrating cutting-edge technologies like remote sensing, geospatial analysis and artificial intelligence to enhance the accuracy and reliability of crop production data.