Maha to digitally track 1.5 crore farmers

MUMBAI : The Maharashtra government will on Monday launch an ambitious initiative that will help digitally track the farming activities of each and every farmer of the state and make farming more sustainable and predictable. The farming activities will be tracked with the help of satellite, drones and groundtruthing.

Called ‘Maharashtra Agritech Programme’ , the scheme will help the government understand the difficulties faced by farmers during each farming season and implement remedies immediately. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will launch the first

phase of the initiative during his ‘Lok Samwad’ programme on Monday.

The estimated number of farmers in the state is around 1.5

crore. ‘Lok Samwad’ is a direct interaction held by Fadnavis with the beneficiaries of the government welfare schemes. The aim of the initiative is to understand difficulties or complaints, if any, in getting benefits of the schemes and get suggestions for further improvement.

“To make farming more sustainable and predictable, we have decided to use digital technology,” Fadnavis said at the CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) Partnership Summit 2019 on Sunday. “The government will launch ‘Maharashtra Agritech Programme’ from tomorrow, which will help us in managing the virtual life cycle of every farmer. Through this digital platform all their farming activities — right from sowing to harvesting will be tracked and managed, which will bring advantage to the agrarian community,” he said.

“It is a first-of-its kind initiative in the country where every single farmer in the state will be tracked digitally and his complete life cycle will be managed through this programme,” said a senior official from the chief minister’s office requesting anonymity. “For instance, what has been sowed by a farmer and on how much area, when the crop is ready for harvesting so what help will he need to get better prices for his produce, or in case the crop is affected by some disease then providing him best facilities, are some of the salient features of the programme.”

The initiative will be implemented in three phases over the next six months. The project will be monitored by the chief minister’s war room, he added.