Centre launches new decision support system for agriculture sector

Krishi-DSS provides seamless access to comprehensive all-India data

The Union government on Friday launched a unique digital geospatial platform called Krishi-Decision Support System (Krishi-DSS) that provides seamless access to comprehensive all-India data, including satellite images of farms, weather information, water reservoir storage, groundwater levels, and soil health information, from anywhere at any time.

The platform — developed jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Department of Space — captures minute details from the vast expanse of fields to the smallest soil particle.

Krishi-DSS will enable the government to understand cropping patterns by analysing parcel-level crop maps of different years.

Officials said the feature on drought monitoring in Krishi-DSS will help the government to stay ahead of drought. It’ll also give near real-time information on various indicators such as soil moisture, water storage, crop condition, dry spells, etc.

 

Crop weather watch feature, which too has been integrated into Krishi-DSS, will keep the government informed about how weather is impacting the crops, crop harvest status, crop residue burning, etc., officials said.

With field-parcel segmentation, Krishi-DSS will enable the government to accurately identify field-parcel units, which will help in understanding each parcel's unique needs, and cropping patterns, for targeted interventions.

One nation-one soil information system of Krishi-DSS will give comprehensive soil data with embedded information on soil type, soil pH (potential of hydrogen), soil health, etc. Soil data will help the government in assessing crop suitability and land capability for implementing soil-water conservation measures, officials said.

That apart, the ground-truth data library of Krishi-DSS will help in fostering innovation by providing essential resources for different crops to researchers and the industry.

An official said that by integrating data sources available on Krishi-DSS, various farmer-centric solutions — such as right individual advisories to farmers, early disaster warnings like pest attacks, heavy rain, hailstorms, etc. — can be developed.