Amidst falling productivity and uncertainty over crop production due to change in weather, the state and Tata Trust will launch a pilot project in six tehsils covering 769 villages for the compilation of real time data for farming. Six tehsils comprise Baramati, Kamthi, Wada, Achalpur, Dindori and Fhilumri which will cover in all 3.19 lakh farmers.
The state government and Tata Trust have recently entered into memorandum of understanding for the execution of pilot project during the ongoing Kharif crop sowing operations. An officer from the state agriculture department told DNA, "The government today issued notification in this regard. The Commissioner of Agriculture will share crop codes for each crop with Tata Trust and conduct join trainings in collaboration with village talathis. On its part, the Tata Trust has developed farmer-friendly mobile application for self-reporting of crops by farmers. It will set up self-reporting innovation lab to support data mining. Tata Trust will examine existing registration module for registration of mobile numbers used by farmers crop reporting and set up district data centre." He informed that the self-reporting of crops by farmers will also simplify crop loan disbursement, payment of compensation in the wake of natural disaster.
The Tata Trusts has offered its resources for a dedicated server and manpower. The exclusive team will work with the state government and National Informatics Centre to bring in flexibility and speed to ensure that timelines are met. The hardware and the dedicated project lab will be supervised by state IT department to ensure security of data transactions.
