Geotagging of assets created under RKVY

• The government has proposed to prepare inventory of the assets created in the last one decade (2007-2017) under RKVY through Geotagging technique.
• National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), wing of Indian Space Research Organisation is providing technical support to RKVY division and has come up with a detailed procedure for the same.

What is geo tagging?

• Geotagging- It is the process of adding geographical identification like latitude and longitude to various media such as a photo or video. Geotagging can help users find a wide variety of location-specific information from a device. It provides users the location of the content of a given picture.
• Geomapping-a visual representation of the geographical location of geotagged assets layered on top of map or satellite imagery

About RKVY:

• State Plan Scheme of Additional Central Assistance was started in 2007 and known as Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.
• This scheme was an ingredient of Government of India’s eleventh 5 Year Plan. Initiated under the guidance of the National Development Council, it looks to attain four percentage yearly development in agriculture by growth of Agriculture & its related divisions (as distinct by the Planning Commission (India)) in the period of the eleventh 5 Year Plan (2007–11 year).
• The scheme is fundamentally a State Plan Scheme. This scheme looks to offer the States & Indian Territories independence to sketch up plans for augmented public venture in Agriculture through incorporating knowledge on local necessities, geographical/ weather conditions, obtainable natural assets/ technology & cropping model in their own districts for noteworthy boost of yield of Agriculture & its related sectors & ultimately maximize the profits of farmers in farming & its related divisions.
• A State is entitled for financial support in the RKVY. With the condition that it maintains or augment the proportion of its spending on Agriculture & its related Sectors with regard to the whole State Plan expenses, with the Base Line (that will move each year) for this spending is the middling of the fraction of expenses acquired by a State Government for the prior 3 years on farming & its related segments minus any finances associated to Agriculture & its related sectors which it might previously have acknowledged in that instant in its State graph.

Analysis:

• Several assets are created in the states under various schemes of the Ministry of Agriculture.
• Under RKVY also, states have been utilising substantial amount of funds for creation of infrastructure/assets in agriculture and allied sectors such as soil testing labs, pesticide testing labs, bio fertiliser setting units, custom hiring centres, vaccine production units , veterinary diagnosis labs , dispensaries , milk collection centres , fish production units, godowns, cold storage, shade nets, pandals for vegetable cultivation etc.
• Monitoring of such wide spread activities is of paramount importance to states and Government of India to understand flow of funds, inventorising the assets, bringing in transparency, planning of assets for future, and finally informing the farmers about the facilities available.
• Geotagging for monitoring of assets is already started in Ministry of Rural Development for MGNREGA and Department of Land Resources for monitoring of watershed activities in the states. Postal department has also geotagged the post offices using NRSC Bhuvan Platform.

By: Vishal