Technological Intervention in Agriculture

24, Jun 2019

• Kisan Suvidha Mobile Application: To facilitate dissemination of information to farmers on the critical parameters viz., Weather; Market Prices; Plant Protection; input Dealers (Seed, Pesticide, Fertilizer) Farm Machinery; Soil Health Card; Cold Storages & Godowns, Veterinary Centres and Diagnostic Labs.
• Indian  Council  of  Agriculture  Research  (ICAR)  Mobile  Apps:  It  has  compiled more than 100 mobile apps developed by ICAR, State Agricultural Universities and Krishi Vigyan   Kendras.   These   mobile   apps   developed   in   the   areas   of   crops,   horticulture, veterinary,   dairy,   poultry,   fisheries,   natural   resources   management   and   integrated subjects, offer valuable information to the farmers, including package of practices, market prices of various commodities, weather related information, advisory services, etc.
• Development of mKisan Portal for sending advisories on various crop related matter to the registered farmers through SMSs.
• Launching of e-National Agriculture Market initiative to provide farmers an electronic online trading platform.
• Implementation   of   Agricultural   Marketing   Infrastructure,   sub-scheme   of   Integrated Scheme  of  Agricultural  Marketing,  in  order  to  improve/create  scientific  storage  capacity for storing farm produce, processed farm produce and to reduce post-harvest storage loss. Introduction  of  Soil  Health  Card  Scheme  to  assist  State  Governments  in  providing  Soil Health Cards to all farmers across the country once in a cycle of 2 years Soil health card provides   information   to   the   farmers   on   nutrient   status   of   their   soil   along   with recommendations  on  appropriate  dosage  of  nutrients  to  be  applied  for  improving  crop productivity and soil fertility.
• Providing subsidies under National Food Security Mission (Oil Seeds and Oil Palm) to farmers on seed components, transfer of technologies, production inputs and water carrying devices. Financial assistance is also being provided under this scheme for block demonstration, frontline demonstration, farmers training to educate farmers to adopt modern techniques of farming to yield good crop economically.
• Use of space technology for various programmes/ areas such as Forecasting Agricultural Output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land-based Observations  project,  Coordinated programme on Horticulture Assessment and Management using geo- informatics project, National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring System, Rice-Fallow Area Mapping and intensification, geo tagging of infrastructure and assets created under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, and Crop Insurance.
• Using machine learning process along with different computer algorithm for crop classification and area estimation.

Organic Farming in India

24, Jun 2019

Why in News?

• Government  of  India has been promoting organic farming under  two dedicated schemes namely Mission Organic Value Chain Development North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER) and Parampragat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) since 2015 through State Governments.

Organic Farming in India:

• Under these schemes, support has been provided for formation of farmers’ clusters/ Farmer Producer Organisation; incentives to farmers for input procurement, value addition including post-harvest infrastructure creation, packaging, branding, publicity, transportation, organic fairs etc..
• Organic Farming has also been supported under other schemes viz Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), Network Project on Organic Farming under ICAR.
• Third party certification of organic farming is promoted by Agriculture Processed Food and Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce.

Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North East Region:

• Mission  Organic  Value  Chain  Development  for  North  East  Region  (MOVCD-NER)  is  a Central Sector Scheme, a sub-mission under National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare for implementation in  the  states  of  Arunachal  Pradesh,  Assam,  Manipur,  Meghalaya,  Mizoram,  Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, during the 12th plan period.
• The scheme aims development of certified organic production in a value chain mode to link growers with consumers and to support the development of entire value chain starting from inputs, seeds, certification, to the creation of facilities for collection, aggregation, processing, marketing and brand building initiative.

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana:

• Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana is an elaborated component of Soil Health Management (SHM) of major project National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA).
• Under PKVY Organic farming is promoted through adoption of organic village by cluster approach and PGS certification.

Scheme Envisages:

• Promotion of commercial organic production through certified organic farming.
• The produce will be pesticide residue free and will contribute to improve the health of consumer.
• It will raise farmer’s income and create potential market for traders.
• It will motivate the farmers for natural resource mobilization for input production.