Context:
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has launched the to integrate artificial intelligence in crop monitoring and crop insurance under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).
Key Objectives:
- Use AI to identify crop types, growth stages, and detect crop stress or damage.
- Support faster, data-backed decisions for insurance claims and agricultural planning.
- Build a real-time, geo-tagged crop image repository across India.
How CROPIC Works
- Photo Collection: Farmers take and upload 4–5 photos of their crops per season using the CROPIC mobile app.
- AI-Powered Analysis: A cloud-based platform analyzes images to classify crop condition, type, and health.
- Official Dashboard: Visual insights and crop health status are made available to government officials via dashboards.
- Insurance Integration: Enables automated and transparent claim verification under PMFBY, reducing manual assessment delays.
Rollout Plan
- Pilot Phase: Implemented in 50 districts starting Kharif 2025, covering three notified crops per district.
- Technology Support: Images linked with coordinates; analysis supported by AI to minimize human bias.
- Funding: Backed by the Fasal Bima Yojana’s Innovation and Technology Fund (FIAT) with a corpus of â‚ą825 crore.
- Full Launch: Pan-India rollout planned post Rabi 2025–26 for all major PMFBY crops.
Benefits
- Speeds up claim settlement under crop insurance.
- Enhances transparency and data credibility.
- Helps government build a centralized agri-image database for future use in research and policy.
- Empowers farmers by giving real-time visibility into crop performance and insurance.
