Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 1

Aiming to bring transparency in the time-consuming and subjective method of quality assessment of grains brought to the mandis by farmers across the country, the Centre is testing technology to ensure that the process is carried out in a quick and transparent manner without any scope for subjectivity or human intervention.

FCI officials say pilot projects were initiated this wheat procurement season in some ‘mandis’ in Punjab and Haryana by a start-up working in developing simple and handy solutions for mandi-level quality checks.

“It is a work in progress, they are trying to get all quality refractions measured through machines instead of human analysis. The AI-based software is able to identify the refractions but has not reached acceptable levels of accuracy so far. Based on the experience, they are working on improvements in the equipment for further testing during coming paddy procurement season,” they explain. 

The current quality-testing is a time-consuming process and also has certain levels of subjectivity. 

“In order to achieve transparency through technology in all governance systems, the FCI is working with Indian Agri-Start Ups for developing a simple and handy testing equipment which can be deployed in the thousands of mandis operated by the government agencies for foodgrain procurement.

“This will ensure that the quality assessment of food grains brought to the procurement centers by farmers are done in a quick and transparent manner without any scope for subjectivity or human intervention,” officials say.

So far, two Agri-tech start-ups have come forward to develop/offer solutions, the pilots of which were run in four ‘mandis’ in Punjab and Haryana during wheat procurement season.

Notably in the current system, during the process of procurement the quality is tested against the standards fixed by the Government of India (Uniform specifications) following the method prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). However, except testing of moisture contents in the grain, all other parameters are tested through manual analysis.

“This is a time-consuming process and has certain levels of subjectivity. Going by the motto of transparency through technology adopted and implemented by the Centre in all governance systems, efforts are on to bring in technology-based quality assessment,” officials explain.

As on June 25 in KMS 2020-21, 853.34 LMT (equivalent to 573.23 LMT Rice) paddy was procured at 73870 paddy purchase centres.

In RMS 2021-22, 432.69 LMT wheat was procured at 19030 wheat purchase centres.