In order to speed up claim settlement of farmers under the existing crop insurance scheme, the agriculture ministry has decided to use specialized agencies to carry out pilot studies to estimate crop yield at village/gram Panchayat level using innovative technology. To take into account government has started using the technological tools in estimating crop yield include high spatio-temporal remote sensing data, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, machine learning, advanced intelligent crop simulation models and artificial intelligence.
The studies will be conducted during the upcoming kharif season and the findings submitted by mid-February 2020. Initially eight crops — paddy, soybean, cotton, bajra, maize, sorghum, groundnut and guar has been identified and ‘Expression of Interest’ issued for inviting experienced agencies for pilot studies”.
According to the official, Agencies will first work upon yield estimation figures, which will be adopted in the ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana’ (PMFBY) for speedily settling claims insured farmers”.
Presently, ‘crop cutting experiments’ (CCEs) is being used by PMFBY to determine the yield loss suffered by farmers due to natural calamities and adverse weather conditions. The CCEs are, however, a time-consuming method which results in delay in settlement of claims.
Officials are sure that “Use of technology will speed up the entire process and related projects will be brought to ground level for taking a decision for accurate yield estimation at village/gram Panchayat level”. The implementation of pilot project would be overseen by the Mahalanobis National Crop the The agency which is currently carrying the yield estimation exercise is Forecast Centre (MNCFC), at district level covering more than 80% of the agriculture area in the country.
