Agritech Bharat: Ministry of Agriculture appoints independent agencies to conduct crop cutting experiments on pilot basis across 100 districts in India

In a bid to infuse technology into Indian agriculture, the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, has appointed three independent agencies to conduct Crop Cutting Experiments (CCE) on a pilot basis across 100 districts in India.

As part of the Government of India’s flagship scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) under which, the agency will be conducting large-scale pilot studies for technology-based Gram-Panchayat level yield estimates, the Ministry has appointed Leads Connect Services Private Limited, a Noida based agritech company, along with two other independent private agencies, to conduct the CCE in 100 districts across India.

On the appointment, Navneet Ravikar, Chairman and Managing Director, Leads Connect Services said, “This will be a smart union of traditional Random Number based CCEs data collection with a Satellite Remote Sensing technology based Random Smart Sampling methodology. In future, there is a strong possibility that new methodology will replace the tradition method and reduce the number of sampling points with a better yield projection model or system.”

“Our nation is a country of small hold/marginal farmers so this will collectively enable accurate and efficient execution of CCE, resulting in timely clearance of claims with a precise production estimates for agriculture planners,” he adds.

Remote Sensing, GIS, AI, and Data Analytics to Co-Observe the CCEs

Leads Connect, with its cutting-edge technologies such as Remote Sensing and GIS, AI, and data analytics frameworks, will co-observe the CCEs conducted by state government for PMFBY. In addition to this, Leads Connect will conduct a few additional CCEs for wheat in various districts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, covering Gram Panchayats in 25 districts across these states.

This pilot study may be extended to 200 districts from Kharif 2021, which is a part of the Government of India Initiative to use technology for precise yield estimation and timely claim settlement under PMFBY scheme.

About Leads Connect

Leads Connect is an analytics company with core focus on agritech driven data analysis and modelling, risk management, and financial services. It aims to connect farm value chain for enabling sustainable, scalable, and profitable agri-business ecosystem. Besides the core focus areas, the organization has been engaged in research and development-based analytics related to climate and hazard, landscape, biodiversity, city, and geospatial analytics.

Leads Connect has delivered projects related to CCEs, remote sensing based crop health monitoring, crop acreage, crop yield estimates, risk and claim management services to various central and state organizations, insurers, and reinsurers.

In addition, they have delivered projects pertaining to GP level yield estimation using technology. It has used machine learning algorithms and satellite remote sensing analytics to develop framework for yield estimation at GP level. They are currently monitoring CCEs for PMFBY in more than 100 districts across India along with geotagging of agriculture infrastructures in 125 districts for NABCONS, a wholly owned subsidiary of NABARD.