Lok Sabha Question No. 390 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-07-22
Subject: Awareness Programmes for Farmers on Digital Agriculture
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Shri Ujjwal Raman Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 390

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 22 ND  JULY, 2025

## AWARENESS PROGRAMMES FOR FARMERS ON DIGITAL AGRICULTURE

## 390.   SHRI UJJWAL RAMAN SINGH:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ͪष एवं ͩकसान कãयाण मंğी be pleased to state:

- (a) the  measures  being  taken  by  the  Government  to  familiarise  farmers  with  digital agriculture,  including  the  use  of  technologies  such  as  sensors,  drones,  and  precision irrigation systems to help to improve the yield and quality of their crops;
- (b) the  details  of  awareness  programmes  being  conducted  by  the  Government  for farmers in this regard, State-wise, and
- (c) the time by which the farmers will become proficient in digital agriculture?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ͪष एवं ͩकसान कãयाण राÏय मंğी (SHRI RAMNATH THAKUR)

- (a)  to  (c):  The  Government  has  taken  various  steps  to  familiarise  farmers  with  digital agriculture,  including  the  use  of  technologies  such  as  sensors,  drones,  and  precision irrigation systems to help improve the yield and quality of their crops. Some of these are given below:
- I. The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) is implementing a Central  Sector  Scheme  "Mass  Media  Support  to  Agriculture  Extension"  through DD  Regional  Kendra,  DD  Kisan  and  All  India  Radio  to  create  awareness  and dissemination  of  scheme  benefits  among  the  farming  community  across  the Country, including agri-based entrepreneurs in India. Under the scheme, 18 DD Regional  Kendras,  97  FM  stations  of  AIR  and  DD  Kisan  are  being  utilized  for wider  publicity  of  department  schemes,  on-going  initiatives,  policy  decisions, advisories  etc.  In  addition,  Audio-Visual  spots  are  being  used  to  broadcast  and telecast  information  about  the  DA&FW  schemes  through  Doordarshan  (DD),  All India Radio (AIR), private TV and radio channels as a part of 'Focused Publicity and  Awareness  Campaign'.  In  addition  to  the  above,  publicity  &  awareness

campaigns are also carried out through Outdoor Publicity as well as through print media  advertisements  in  leading  newspapers  across  the  country.  The  social media  platforms  viz.  Facebook,  X,  Instagram,  Threads,  YouTube,  LinkedIn, Whatsapp,  Public  App,  etc.  are  also  being  used  for  better  outreach  and  wider publicity about the details of Farmers Welfare Schemes of the Department.

- II. Support to State Extension Programmes for Extension Reforms (ATMA) Scheme, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, is presently being implemented in 740 districts of 28  states  &  5  UTs  in  the  country.  The  scheme  promotes  a  decentralized  and farmer-friendly extension system in the country. The objectives of the Scheme is to support State Government's efforts and to make available the latest agricultural technologies  and good  agricultural practices in different thematic areas of agriculture and allied areas including digital agriculture to farmers through different extension activities viz; Farmers Training, Demonstrations, Exposure Visits, Kisan Mela,  Mobilization  of  Farmers  Groups  and  organizing  Farm  Schools  etc.  Statewise  details  of  farmers  benefited  through  different  extension  activities  under  the scheme during the last three years are enclosed at Annexure-I
- III. 'Kisan e-Mitra' is a voice-based AI-powered chatbot developed to assist farmers with  responses  to  their  queries  on  the  PM  Kisan  Samman  Nidhi  scheme.  This solution  supports  11  regional  languages  and  is  evolving  to  assist  with  other government  programs.  At  present,  it  handles  over  20,000  farmer  queries  daily, and so far, more than 95 lakh queries have been answered.
- IV. The  National  Pest  Surveillance  System,  for  tackling  the  loss  of  produce  due  to climate change, utilizes AI and Machine Learning to detect pest infestation in crop issues, enabling timely intervention for healthier crops. This tool, currently used by over 10,000 extension workers, allows farmers to capture images of pests to help them  mitigate  pest  attacks  and  reduce  crop  losses.  At  present,  it  supports  61 crops and over 400 pests.
- V. To promote use of drones in agriculture, and Demonstration of newly developed agricultural/ horticultural/crop residue management machines post-harvest technologies under SMAM, financial assistance @ 100% of the cost of drone up to a  maximum  of  Rs.  10  lakhs  per  drone  is  provided  for  its  purchase  and demonstration  on  the  farmers'  fields  by  the  institutes  under  Indian  Council  of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Farm Machinery Training & Testing Institutes, Krishi Vigyan  Kendras  (KVKs),  State  Agriculture  Universities  (SAUs),  State  and  other Central Government  Agricultural Institutions/Departments and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) of Government of India engaged agricultural activities. The
5. government  has  provided  funds  of  Rs.  5250  lakhs  for  the  procurement  of  300 Kisan drones to the ICAR. The ICAR institutes to date have procured 296 Kisan drones,  and  organized  27114  Drones  Demonstrations  for  the  awareness  and familiarization with the use of Drones in Agriculture and a total of 315648 farmers from  different  states  participated  in  the  demonstration  programmes.  The  details are attached in Annexure II.
- VI. Department  of  Agriculture  &  Farmers  Welfare  (DA&FW)  is  implementing  the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) in the Country from 2015-16.  PDMC  focuses  on  enhancing  water  use  efficiency  at  the  farm  level through Micro-Irrigation, namely Drip and Sprinkler Irrigation Systems.  The Micro Irrigation  helps  in  water  saving  as  well  as  reducing  fertilizer  usage  through fertigation, labour expenses, other input costs and overall income enhancement of farmers.    The  Government  provides  financial  assistance  @  55%  for  small  and marginal  farmers  and  @  45%  for  other  farmers  for  the  installation  of  Drip  and Sprinkler systems under the PDMC.

## DETAILS OF FARMERS BENEFITTED UNDER A.T.M.A. SCHEME FROM 2022-23 TO 2024-25

| SL. No.   | States/UTs        |   2022-23 |   2023-24 |   2024-25 |    Total |
|-----------|-------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|----------|
| 1         | Andhra Pradesh    |     28103 |     37553 |      1636 |    67292 |
| 2         | Bihar             |    395982 |    574595 |    222698 |  1193275 |
| 3         | Chhattisgarh      |    114488 |     19623 |     69587 |   203698 |
| 4         | Goa               |      6271 |     14449 |      8137 |    28857 |
| 5         | Gujarat           |    384771 |    140042 |    121084 |   645897 |
| 6         | Haryana           |     50606 |     25320 |      5674 |    81600 |
| 7         | Himachal Pradesh  |     15784 |     42925 |     41555 |   100264 |
| 8         | Jammu& Kashmir    |     24215 |     24162 |     68128 |   116505 |
| 9         | Jharkhand         |     44912 |     40447 |     45759 |   131118 |
| 10        | Karnataka         |    260928 |    140256 |    154268 |   555452 |
| 11        | Kerala            |    107649 |    107174 |     39425 |   254248 |
| 12        | Maharashtra       |    436346 |    456013 |    415544 |  1307903 |
| 13        | Madhya Pradesh    |    186507 |    375572 |     67883 |   629962 |
| 14        | Orissa            |     84526 |     40607 |    135199 |   260332 |
| 15        | Punjab            |     73614 |     64048 |     61659 |   199321 |
| 16        | Rajasthan         |    246830 |     20403 |    455016 |   722249 |
| 17        | Telangana         |      4260 |       311 |      6067 |    10638 |
| 18        | Tamil Nadu        |    488331 |    520316 |    776503 |  1785150 |
| 19        | Uttar Pradesh     |    470492 |    602577 |    619101 |  1692170 |
| 20        | Uttarakhand       |     53890 |     46775 |     54273 |   154938 |
| 21        | West Bengal       |    298899 |    177855 |    236498 |   713252 |
| 22        | Assam             |     40025 |     40845 |     51577 |   132447 |
| 23        | Arunachal Pradesh |     56682 |     23000 |     60642 |   140324 |
| 24        | Manipur           |     22776 |      5400 |     31950 |    60126 |
| 25        | Meghalaya         |     16265 |     30585 |     28064 |    74914 |
| 26        | Mizoram           |      7440 |      3558 |      4713 |    15711 |
| 27        | Nagaland          |     58588 |     41571 |     60483 |   150007 |
| 28        | Tripura           |      5592 |     14611 |     36436 |    56639 |
| 29        | Sikkim            |      6576 |      7791 |      7809 |    22176 |
| 30        | Delhi             |      5500 |         0 |       525 |     6025 |
| 31        | Puducherry        |      7146 |     10837 |      5981 |    23964 |
| 32        | A&N               |      7641 |      9833 |      9811 |    27285 |
| 33        | Ladakh            |       244 |      1535 |       740 |     2519 |
|           | Total -           |   4011879 |   3660589 |   3904425 | 11566258 |

## Details of State-wise, Numbers of demonstrations conducted, Area Covered through drone demonstrations and beneficiary

|   S. No. | State             |   Drone Demonstration (Nos.) |   Area Covered in Drone Demonstration (Ha) |   Total Farmers Participated (Nos.) |
|----------|-------------------|------------------------------|--------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|
|        1 | Andhra Pradesh    |                         1606 |                                       3191 |                               13285 |
|        2 | Arunachal Pradesh |                            1 |                                          5 |                                  40 |
|        3 | Assam             |                          482 |                                        291 |                               11754 |
|        4 | Bihar             |                         2843 |                                       2176 |                                6015 |
|        5 | Chhattisgarh      |                         1388 |                                       1424 |                               21522 |
|        6 | Gujarat           |                         1348 |                                        587 |                                2660 |
|        7 | Haryana           |                         2077 |                                       1234 |                               51132 |
|        8 | HP                |                          800 |                                        906 |                               13265 |
|        9 | J&K               |                          530 |                                        550 |                               30330 |
|       10 | Jharkhand         |                          948 |                                        590 |                                1004 |
|       11 | Karnataka         |                         1787 |                                       2818 |                               14618 |
|       12 | Kerala            |                         1506 |                                       1867 |                               12161 |
|       13 | Madhya Pradesh    |                         6079 |                                       4228 |                               36269 |
|       14 | Maharashtra       |                          485 |                                        470 |                               15778 |
|       15 | Manipur           |                           34 |                                         34 |                                 164 |
|       16 | Meghalaya         |                           82 |                                         94 |                                1244 |
|       17 | Mizoram           |                           27 |                                         31 |                                 780 |
|       18 | Nagaland          |                           10 |                                        302 |                                1463 |
|       19 | Odisha            |                           21 |                                        283 |                                 850 |
|       20 | Punjab            |                          368 |                                        405 |                                4021 |
|       21 | Rajasthan         |                          780 |                                        744 |                               23681 |
|       22 | Sikkim            |                          250 |                                        130 |                                2750 |
|       23 | Tamil Nadu        |                          908 |                                       1399 |                                9615 |
|       24 | Telangana         |                          263 |                                       1064 |                                4764 |
|       25 | Tripura           |                          195 |                                        109 |                                5932 |
|       26 | Tripura           |                          195 |                                        109 |                                5932 |
|       27 | UP                |                         1052 |                                       1891 |                               10139 |
|       28 | Uttrakhand        |                          383 |                                        321 |                                1201 |
|       29 | West Bengal       |                          240 |                                       1773 |                                8963 |
|       30 | Delhi             |                          426 |                                        500 |                                4316 |

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