Edited by Prashant Belawariar Mechanized agriculture is the process of using agricultural machinery to enhance productivity. Govt. of Odisha is assisting farmers with subsidy to procure different farm implements. Director of Agriculture and Food Production (A&FP), implemented eDMAIs - a monitoring system to bring transparency and accountability in the delivery of implements to the farmers along with online payment of subsidy to the vendors (http://agrisnetodisha.ori.nic.in). R.S.Gopalan, IAS, Director says: 'ICT will enable the Agriculture sector to serve the farmers in an efficient way. By speeding up the processes, farmers will be encouraged in their efforts. Minimal bureaucracy, authenticated transactions and speedier disbursal are all essential for today’s agricultural sector. We can not afford to be left behind in technological solutions.' Major objectives • Online registration of vendors • Entry of farmers’ applications • Identity verification of the beneficiaries • Monitoring implements delivery to the beneficiaries • Quick disposal of subsidy amount to the vendor/beneficiary/bank Stakeholders • Directorate of Agriculture and Food Production, Odisha • Deputy Director Agriculture (DDA) & District Agriculture Officer (DAO) of all districts of Odisha • Assistant Agriculture Engineers (AAE) of all districts of Odisha • Vendors of various mechanized instruments • Bank of India, Bhubaneswar branch • Farmers across the State Role of Vendors Since mechanized instruments are supplied by the registered vendors, the instrument details are filled up online by the vendor and a system generated SMS alert is sent to the concerned AAE for verification. Role of AAE AAE goes through the pending list of all instruments online and accordingly visit the site for verification. After verification, the machine is photographed along with the beneficiary and the AAE & is uploaded on the portal. Simultaneously, a computer generated SMS is sent to the concerned registered vendor. Then, the vendor submits its bill directly to the bank for release of subsidy. Role of bank Banks follow 2-step verification for release of subsidy: Step 1 Banks check/scrutinize all the documents submitted by the vendor with the online data. Step 2 Banks verify the scrutinized documents again relating to the financial part and then finally release the subsidy to the farmers/vendors. Thus, G2G, G2B and G2C services are provided by the system. G2G services Ninety seven District Agriculture Circles, thirty District Agriculture Offices (DAO) are working under the Directorate of A & FP. Permit issued from DAO are constantly monitored by the officers of engineering section of the Directorate, as well as by all District Collectorate and Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India. G2B services Online issuance of permit is reflected at the pages of Registered Implement Dealers to negotiate with the farmers regarding the cost of implements. The system also facilitates banks to release the subsidy amount to the dealers and the beneficiaries after proper online verification. G2C services The citizens (farmers) get updated status of their applications at each stage through SMS. Key deliverables • DAO circle wise report on target, permit issued, machines supplied, verification made and release of payment • District wise/Block wise reports on all parameters • Total Permits Generated Report • Permits Invalid Report • All the Financial Reports • Rejection Report of AAEs/banks with cause achievements • Schemes including Work plan, State plan and Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojana (RKVY) etc are integrated with the system. • 685 dealers have registered in 934 categories of mechanized instruments over the portal. • Since 2012, 44028 applications have been processed while 14,189 farmers have been benefited. • Rs.82.14 crore have been released towards the subsidy. • Subsidy is released within 3 days after online verification by the designated bank whereas previously it took months. • Won National Award for e-Governance, 2012-13 for outstanding performance in citizen-centric service delivery category.