Odisha wins Global Planet Purpose Award

Bhubaneswar: Odisha was awarded Global Planet Purpose Award for Drive for Results at the Planet Explore 2023-Transparency to Action Conference in Washington DC.

Drive for Results Award is given to agencies who rapidly test, measure, and improve problem solving approach to drive more results. Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare department, Electronics & Information Technology department along with Odisha Space Application Centre (ORSAC) and technology partners SPARC Private Limited (India) and CSM Technologies are using satellite based imagery in paddy procurement to weed out bogus farmers and effective disbursal of Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers.

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The technology-aided governance is being used for greater welfare of farmers. The system uses satellite imagery to provide accurate and up-to-date information on crop grown at field level which helps FS & CW department to seamlessly transfer Minimum Support Price to genuine farmers.
The innovative crop analytics system uses bundle of technologies like GIS, satellite imagery and process it with power of visualisation to verify the plots on which paddy is grown.

The fool-proof system helps in detecting suspect claimants for complete transparency in MSP scheme. The system is integrated with Odisha government’s land record database-Bhulekh and Paddy Procurement Automation (PPAS) which helps in verifying the genuine farmers.

Paddy crop validation is done using remote sensing image analysis technology while AI based mobile application is used for further prevention of possible manipulation by field level officials. Odisha currently procures paddy worth Rs 14,000 crore from more than 1.5 million farmers across the state covering about 50,000 villages under the MSP scheme.

Congratulating Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare department, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said: “Technology is corner-stone of our 5T governance model. Glad to know that the use of technology is ushering in a new era of transparency for greater welfare of lakhs of farmers. I commend the department for using frontier technology for effective distribution of MSP benefits to lakhs of our farmers.”

The technology uses real-time satellite images for successful validation of paddy grown in farmlands across Odisha. The technology-aided transparency has also encouraged more small and medium farmers to avail benefits of the MSP scheme, improving their participation from 67 per cent to 73 per cent, said Minister for Food Supply and Consumer Welfare Cooperation, Atanu sabyasachi Nayak.