The Government of India approved the Digital Agriculture Mission in September 2024, marking a major step toward transforming Indian agriculture through technology.
The Mission aims to create a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for agriculture—comprising AgriStack, Krishi Decision Support System (KDSS), and a comprehensive Soil Fertility & Profile Map—to build a robust digital ecosystem. This will enable innovative, farmer-centric digital solutions and ensure that reliable crop-related information reaches farmers on time.
The AgriStack DPI rests on three foundational registries managed by States and Union Territories:
· Geo-Referenced Village Maps
· Crop Sown Registry
· Farmers Registry
The Farmers Registry contains detailed demographic, landholding, and crop information, helping authenticate farmers digitally for accessing benefits like credit, insurance, procurement, and online trading of inputs and produce. Complementing this, the Digital Crop Survey (DCS) System provides accurate, real-time crop area data for every plot.
The Krishi Decision Support System (Krishi-DSS) standardises geospatial and non-geospatial datasets, integrating satellite, weather, soil, crop signatures, and water resource data with government schemes. It enables crop and soil mapping, automated yield estimation, and drought/flood monitoring—empowering evidence-based policymaking and innovation in the agritech sector.
Additionally, the Soil and Land Use Survey of India (SLUSI) has initiated a Soil Resource Mapping project, using high-resolution satellite and ground data to create standardised soil maps at village level (1:10,000 scale). This will guide sustainable land use and scientific crop planning.
Alongside digital initiatives, the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) continues to implement the Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) scheme, introduced in 2015–16. PDMC promotes efficient water use through Micro Irrigation systems (drip and sprinkler), which not only conserve water but also reduce fertiliser consumption, labour costs, and other inputs—leading to higher farmer incomes.
Under PDMC, the Government provides financial support of 55% for small and marginal farmers and 45% for other farmers to install drip and sprinkler irrigation, with benefits capped at 5 hectares per farmer. States may also extend additional subsidies from their budgets.