The Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES), Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers organised a Conference on Estimation of Crop Production in New Delhi on July 13, 2022. The Conference was inaugurated by Shri. Manoj Ahuja, Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

This conference aimed at discussion about various methodologies used by different agencies for crop estimation, sharing their best practices and to tri-angulate the reasons for variation between the estimates generated by different agencies and the way forward to generate responsible agricultural crop estimates.

Around 300 participants from various fields such as Central Ministries / Departments, State Governments, Private agencies involved in Crop Estimation and FAO participated in the conference. There were 3 sessions focusing on estimation methodology adopted by Government, Private Agencies and Best Practices being followed by few states.

The presentations made covered various systems using different methodologies which either had a widespread coverage of geography and crops or limited to few crops and regions. The crop estimation methodology used by the Central Government is widespread and covers the highest number of crop for production estimation, the Mahalanobis Crop Forecasting Centre (MNCFC) uses remote sensing through satellite imagery for crop estimation and the Institute of Economic Growth uses econometric modelling for the estimation of various crops in the country. The states have developed over time their own geo-referenced IT enabled database portal driven method of crop estimation. The private players use mix and match of various means and technology to provide crop estimates as per the market need and have predominantly commodity specific and client needs driven. However, the private players are increasing the scope in the field of crop estimation with rising participation of private players in the agriculture sector.

Since the estimates released in public domain have impact on the market sentiments, prices, consumer preferences and other factors, through this conference an attempt was made to triangulate mid-point where all these estimates and methodology would converge and pave the way for generation of responsible estimates in the way forward.

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APS/PK

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