A research team led by Prof. P. Krishna Reddy at IIIT Hyderabad, in collaboration with scientists from Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), has developed Version 2 of the Crop Darpan app—an advanced crop diagnostic tool designed to assist farmers in identifying and addressing crop health issues.
Crop Darpan acts as a portable agricultural expert, helping farmers detect problems in their rice and cotton crops, including pests, bacterial and fungal diseases, and nutritional deficiencies. The app not only identifies these issues but also provides scientific guidance on how to resolve them.
Prof. Reddy , who faced several ups and downs in his efforts in early 2000s, has built a workable system, after developing an IT solution called eSagu (Sagu means Agriculture or farming in Telugu language.). Later, his research team came up with Crop Darpan, which is easily usable by farmers. They developed a system framework and developed the first version of a usable product – Crop Darpan app, for rice and cotton crops.
The framework can be extended to all crops of India in all languages, says Reddy. "The Crop Darpan app will assist farmers with problems identified with crop development, bugs, bacterial infection, parasitic diseases, and nutritional insufficiency," he explained.
A virtual training session was conducted on 26 August for District Agricultural Officers and Mandal Agricultural officers, covering fifty percent of districts in Telangana for Cotton and Rice crops. They in turn train and encourage farmers to adapt the App in their daily farming activity.
How Crop Darpan Works
The app features a structured question-based diagnosis system that helps farmers pinpoint crop problems using a simple "Yes" or "No" approach. By visiting their fields with a smartphone, farmers can respond to a series of questions based on visual symptoms observed in their crops. As users progress through the hierarchy of questions, the system narrowly diagnoses the exact problem and suggests appropriate solutions.
A Smart Solution for Modern Farming
Crop cultivation involves three key phases:
Choosing the right crop and sowing time;
Managing crop health—pests, diseases, and nutrient deficiencies;
Optimizing market price realization;
Crop Darpan primarily focuses on phase two, ensuring that farmers can effectively manage crop health without needing direct assistance from agricultural experts. The app serves as a virtual extension of experts from National Agricultural Institutes, offering real-time, field-based guidance.
Download Crop Darpan
The Crop Darpan app is available for free download on:
Google Play Store: Crop Darpan on Play Store
Apple App Store: Crop Darpan on App Store
With Version 2 unveiled in 2022, Crop Darpan continues to empower farmers by providing a user-friendly interface for crop diagnosis and management—ensuring healthier yields and better farming outcomes.
The research is a joint venture under the India-Japan Joint Research Laboratory project titled 'Data Science-based farming support system for sustainable crop production under climatic change' with other participating institutes -- IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bombay, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Hyderabad and the University of Tokyo.
