Sept 25 deadline to appoint crop surveyors to digitise data | Lucknow News
Lucknow: Digital crop survey project is set to receive fresh thrust with state govt fixing Sept 25 deadline for appointment of crop surveyors from different departments, including panchayati raj, rural development and agriculture. The surveyors will replace traditional lekhpals who were initially assigned task of conducting crop survey across all revenue villages in Uttar Pradesh.The project is part of the broader AgriStack/Digital Agriculture Mission, which seeks a unified, verified source of data about farmers, their land, crops and associated variables. The data should help policy planning, scheme delivery, insurance, credit, etc.Officiating chief secretary Deepak Kumar, in a recent communique sent to all district magistrates and heads of the departments in panchayati raj, rural development and agriculture, said the crop survey may be carried out by panchayat assistants, gram rozgar sewak and assistant technical managers of the agriculture department. Kumar said each surveyor should be assigned with surveying up to 3,000 ‘gata’ of land. The limit underscored quantifiable target, suggesting an attempt to enforce accountability and speed.Sources said the move distributed responsibility across specialised rural functionaries closer to the ground. Lekhpals, who were earlier assigned the task, are burdened with a heavy workload of revenue collection, land disputes, inheritance records, etc. “Their effectiveness in crop survey is limited,” a senior official in the agriculture department said.Officials said by involving panchayat assistants, gram rozgar sewaks and assistant technical managers, state govt sought to integrate multiple rural governance arms into the AgriStack framework. This recognised the fact that accurate crop data was not just a revenue matter but a multi-sectoral requirement.The project aims to cover all 93,870 villages in the state. The survey will include around 6.6 crore Khasra units (Plots) to be geo-references and assessed. Earlier, digital crop survey was completed in 21 districts. In other districts, 10 sample villages per district were surveyed.
