Maharashtra lets farmers register crops offline via e-Ferfar as survey app glitches persist

About 70 lakh farmers in Maharashtra who have faced technical problems with the Centre's Digital Crop Survey mobile app will now be able to register their crops offline through the e-Ferfar system, an official said.

The official said on Saturday, November 7, that the state Revenue Department issued a Government Resolution (GR) on Friday following directions from Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule. Under it, crops can be inspected at the talathi level in places where online registration has stalled in the current kharif season.

According to the GR, the e-Crop Inspection System was launched in the state on August 15, 2021. It allowed farmers to record crop details from their mobile phones. The aim of the process was stated to be making crop registration accessible to farmers and transparent. On December 1, 2024, the state government made some technical changes to the app so that crops could also be registered through the AgriStack platform.

Despite this, the Digital Crop Survey app ran into problems in the current kharif season, and online registration became difficult in some areas. The GR mentions four problems. The first is that even when the farmer is present in the field, the app shows a difference of more than 20 metres between the actual field and the field boundary displayed in the app.

The other three problems are that maps in the app have been swapped with one another, maps of entire villages are missing, and farmers' names and land account numbers are not available in the app.

The government has said that where online registration still cannot be done after attempts to resolve these technical problems, crop registration through the e-Ferfar system will be permitted as an alternative for the current kharif season.

Meanwhile, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Makarand Jadhav Patil said that more than 87.45 lakh farmers in the state's 304 drought-affected talukas had received a total of Rs 4,372.83 crore as advance Diwali assistance by Thursday.

The aid was announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. He had assured eligible farmers of Rs 5,000 each before Diwali as financial relief in the drought conditions.

According to Jadhav Patil, money is still being sent to the remaining eligible farmers. Farmers whose payments have been held up by technical problems will be paid as soon as the problem is resolved. The minister also said the Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, and Agriculture departments worked on a war footing so that the aid reaches farmers' bank accounts directly.