CROPIC Initiative:
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare plans to launch CROPIC, a study to gather crop information using field photographs and AI-based models.
- CROPIC stands for Collection of Real Time Observations & Photo of Crops.
- It is an initiative under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) with a dual purpose of monitoring crop health and stress and automation of crop loss assessment and payment of claims to affected farmers using computer vision technology and photo-analytic models.
- Under this initiative, crops will be photographed four-five times during their cycle, and the pictures will be analysed to assess their health and potential mid-season losses.
- The study will be carried out for two seasons initially, kharif 2025 and rabi 2025-26.
- The study envisages collection of field photographs during the crop season using CROPIC mobile application which has been developed by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
- The photographs from the field will be crowd-sourced directly from farmers.
- Then, they will be analysed for information including crop type, crop stage, crop damage and its extent.
- This model will use an AI-based cloud platform for photo analysis and information extraction, and a web-based dashboard for visualisation.
- Also, when compensation or insurance is to be paid to farmers, officials will collect the photographs using the CROPIC Mobile App.
- It will be rolled out initially in at least 50 districts per season.
- These districts will be well distributed in different agro-climatic zones covering the three major notified crops (notified crops are those covered under insurance schemes like PMFBY) in each district for each season, initially.
- The Fund for Innovation and Technology (FIAT) under PMFBY will be used for funding CROPIC.
