Syllabus

GS 3: Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology 

Context:

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is planning to launch CROPIC, a project that aims to study the crops using photographs and AI tools.

More on the News 

• On June 5, the Agriculture Ministry issued an Expression of Interest (EoI) to select agencies for conducting the CROPIC study.
• Initially, CROPIC will be implemented in at least 50 districts per season, chosen from various agro-climatic zones. 
• Each selected district will focus on three major notified crops covered under insurance schemes like PMFBY for each season.
• The government will select the 50 districts and the three crops for each season. However, over time, all crops notified under PMFBY will be brought under the CROPIC initiative.
• Currently, CROPIC is in the pilot phase to support research and development of suitable photo-analysis models. 
• These pilot studies will continue during the next two crop seasons, with a nationwide rollout planned from 2026 for all major crops.

About CROPIC

CROPIC, which stands for “Collection of Real-Time Observations & Photo of Crops” which involves photographing crops 4–5 times during their growth cycle to assess crop health and possible mid-season losses using image analysis.

The study will initially be conducted during the “Kharif 2025” and “Rabi 2025–26” seasons.

The study plans to collect field photographs throughout the crop season using a mobile application. This CROPIC app has been developed by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.

Photographs from the fields will be crowd-sourced directly from farmers and analysed to identify crop type, growth stage, damage, and its severity.

The CROPIC model will use an AI-powered cloud platform for analyzing the images and extracting information, along with a web-based dashboard for visual display.

Additionally, when compensation or insurance needs to be provided, officials will use the CROPIC mobile app to collect supporting field photographs.

According to officials from the Agriculture Ministry, CROPIC will be funded through the “Fund for Innovation and Technology (FIAT)” under the “Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)”.

• FIAT has a total budget of “₹825 crore”, allocated for supporting various technology-driven innovations in crop insurance schemes.

Significance 

• Faster claims: Objective, photo-based assessments aim to speed up insurance disbursals and reduce manual bias.
• Better agricultural resilience: Supporting financial stability for farmers and enabling data-driven policymaking.
• AI in agri-tech: Establishes a strong foundation of crop image datasets and analytics for future innovation.
• Automation of assessments: It will help automate the process of crop loss estimation and compensation under PMFBY.

Mains Practice Question

 Discuss the objectives and significance of the CROPIC initiative launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. In your view. what are the key challenges in its implementation and how can they be addressed to ensure effective crop monitoring and insurance delivery? (250 words)