Krishi RASTAA provides soil reports to farmers in 30 minutes and issues advisories to them on the optimum use of fertilisers and micronutrients.
Published Jan 07, 2023 | 6:17 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 07, 2023 | 6:17 PM
The Digital India award to Telangana for Krishi RASTAA was conferred by President Droupadi Murmu in the presence of Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi (Supplied)
The Telangana government’s project ‘Smart Nutrient Management of Soil’ has won the Gold Icon Award at the Digital India Awards 2022 in the category “Digital initiatives in collaboration with start-ups”.
This category has been introduced in the Digital India awards for the first time.
The Centre has envisioned the Digital India awards to encourage and honour innovative digital initiatives by government entities at all levels, a press release issued on Saturday said.
L Rama Devi, director of Emerging Technologies Wing, Information Technology, Electronics & Communications Department, along with Sudheer Kumar Jindam, senior consultant, Information Technology, Electronics & Communications Department, and Sandeep Kondaji, CEO & co-founder of Krishitantra, attended the Digital India awards ceremony to receive the Gold Icon on behalf of the Telangana government
Under the category “Digital initiatives in collaboration with start-ups”, the Digital India programme has identified and conferred awards to projects that displayed excellence by government entities in collaboration with start-ups for enhancement or transformation of digital governance, improving the experience of digital services and digital empowerment of citizens, i.e., fulfilling the Digital India vision.
The award was conferred by President of India Droupadi Murmu in the presence of Minister for Electronics & Information Technology, Communications and Railways, Ashwini Vaishnaw, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
L Rama Devi, director of Emerging Technologies Wing, Information Technology, Electronics & Communications Department, along with Sudheer Kumar Jindam, senior consultant, Information Technology, Electronics & Communications Department, and Sandeep Kondaji, CEO & co-founder of Krishitantra, attended the Digital India awards ceremony to receive the Gold Icon on behalf of the Telangana government.
The Information Technology, Electronics and Communications Department and the Agriculture Department of the Telangana government, along with Krishitantra, have built a completely automated portable soil testing solution named Krishi RASTAA-Rapid Automated Soil Testing with Agronomy Advisory.
Krishi RASTAA provides soil reports to farmers in 30 minutes and issues advisories to them on the optimum use of fertilisers and micronutrients. These reports and advisories are made available in three languages — Telugu, English, and Hindi. This project was executed by Krishitantra under the guidance and mentorship of ICAR IIRR.
The soil advisory analysis done under this project facilitates efficient use of farming inputs, thus increasing production and income while lowering soil degradation. The agronomy advisory that comes after the soil analysis, coupled with the precise dosage of agrochemicals as suggested in the advisory, is the way forward in the context of a climate-sensitive future.
It helps farmers to reduce input use by helping with the right quantity of nutrients. This ultimately decreases water consumption, unnecessary fertiliser use, soil degradation, and water contamination.
Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao said, “The state government has always been at the forefront of enabling and driving the use of frontier technologies in several sectors. Emerging Technologies Wing has been crucial in the acceleration and adoption of technologies, especially AI and Cloud in the state. Together these technologies become a powerful tool to bring transformation while impacting lives at scale.”
