ZIRO : Agriculture officials from five districts of central Arunachal Pradesh participated in a one-day orientation programme on the Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES) at the Golden Jubilee Conference Hall here on Tuesday.

Organised by Lower Subansiri District Agriculture Officer Tasso Butung, the training brought together around 40 field-level officials, including Senior District Agriculture Officers, Agriculture Development Officers, Block and Assistant Technology Managers, Marketing Inspectors and Field Assistants from Lower Subansiri, Upper Subansiri, Kamle, Kra Daadi and Keyi Panyor districts.

The technical session was conducted by Directorate of Agriculture Assistant Statistical Inspector Ngurang Yakam, who introduced participants to the DGCES mobile application and web portal designed to modernise crop yield estimation.

The training focused on replacing conventional paper-based crop yield surveys with a digital system that streamlines Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) through automated plot selection, geotagged data collection and GPS-enabled photography to ensure accurate, transparent and tamper-proof field reporting.

As part of the programme, participants later visited Mudang Tage village for a field demonstration, where they mapped sample plots and gained hands-on experience in using the mobile application for real-time data collection.

The orientation programme forms part of the nationwide initiative to strengthen crop yield estimation through technology-driven and evidence-based agricultural data collection. (DIPR)