India to Implement AI-Supported Digital Crop Surveys Nationwide

New Delhi: India is gearing up to enhance its agricultural statistical system by implementing advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI)-supported regular digital crop surveys nationwide. Senior officials have confirmed this plan.
They emphasized that this initiative would aid the government in validating more precise agricultural production forecasts, facilitating timely trade policy interventions.

They highlighted that inaccurate data often triggers hurried government responses to inflation and trade disruptions.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, an official stated, "If all goes well, the digital survey could commence on a large scale by next summer." Typically, officials depend on data from local authorities for crop sowing figures, which have proven unreliable on numerous occasions.

The timely collection of agricultural data has become imperative. Nodal officers of states will utilize a mobile application for digital crop surveys and related web applications to gather data on crop sowing.
The Ministry of Agriculture aims to establish a robust crop survey system employing visual and advanced analysis, GIS-GPS technologies, and the latest advancements in AI/ML (Machine Learning) for estimating sowing figures.