Odisha to conduct digital crop survey

The Odisha government is going to conduct a digital crop survey across the State to ascertain the exact area under cultivation by farmers.

The survey will be done using a mobile application developed jointly by the Centre and the State government.

In the first phase, the survey will be conducted in four districts – Nuapada, Nayagarh, Deogarh, and Bhadrak. The survey will be expanded to other districts later.

As per reports, the field staff of the agriculture department will visit the farmlands and take pictures of the plot with the exact longitude and latitude. They will add the details of the farmer and the type of crop cultivated, in the app. It will be particularly helpful while compensating farmers for crop loss due to natural disasters.

“While crop survey is not new to Odisha, it was conducted manually by our field staff. That was often not accurate and gave us an approximate figure. But we have decided to make it digital so that we can get accurate figures,” said Agriculture Department Director Prem Chandra Choudhary.

“We will start the pilot project this year in four districts. This will be a plot-wise crop survey which will be done through a mobile app. This will help us ascertain the exact amount of crop cultivated in the State,” Choudhary added.