1. Are the government agencies at block or taluka level using the analytical services based on Remote Sensing and GIS for better management of agricultural activities?
Yes, the government agencies are now more focused on village and plot
levels. The action plans are being split into Taluka level. NSSO and SAC
conducted a village level inventory for six randomly selected villages
in three different districts of Haryana, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh
and achieved 90% accuracy. In the World Bank aided Sodicland project,
the reclamation program was implemented by government agency after considering the sodicland information at plot level mapped using high-resolution LISS-IV data.
Gujarat government has been preparing revenue level thematic maps for micro-level planning. Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra government has their village revenue maps digitised and getting inventory on plot level
for better management and farmer advisory services. Availability of
high radiometric resolution and spatial resolution has made plot level
inventory more accurate with improved crop separability.
2. Is GIS being used for precision farming in India and if so are the farmers benefitting from it?
Currently, GIS is not being used for precision farming in India due to
certain technical challenges such as a) Small plot size, b) a large
diversity of crops sown in an area, c) large field to field variability
in sowing and harvesting dates, management practices, input use, d)
practice of inter-cropping and mixed cropping. The studies on potato and
a few other crops have been carried out to develop yield mapping
models, fertility, pH, EC etc. However, at operational level, it will be
huge task for state governments and the large number of farmers cannot afford this due to higher cost.
But now both the Agri-input and commodity industries now seem to be
interested to start farmer advisory services based on near real time
information gathered using satellite imagery. As the competition among
the stakeholders of input industry (Seed, pesticide and fertilizer) is increasing, they are interested to protect their market through strong bonding with customer base (farmers).
Sugar industry has already been operating keeping in the micro-level approach.
3. Can you share some of your thoughts on national projects for crop produce estimate, crop management etc or those being undertaken by APEDA for crop estimation.
Currently, FASAL is a project being run by Ministry
of Agriculture for crop inventory assessment for a few major crops.
Still more agencies should take up the responsibility for crop
management and produce estimate.
Food security is emerging as a critical issue in coming years and many
rich countries who have more money but less agricultural land are taking interest in India to invest in order to get exported Indian agricultural produce to their countries.
APEDA of Commerce Ministry being a nodal agency for development of Agricultural produces
in India is responsible for supporting and regulating the export of
high value crop produce such as Basmati, Groundnut etc. To provide
timely information on crop estimate to the exporters, APEDA conducts
study on Basmati and now Groundnut through a third agency for acreage
and production estimation. More agencies like Cotton Advisory Board may
also take up such study using satellite imagery in future. A few mills
from Sugar Industry are also using GIS based management in their command
areas.
4. What are the service which you are providing though AgriNet in India?
AgriNet Solutions was started by United Phosphorus Ltd. in the year
2000 with a vision to start farmer advisory services through Internet
and GIS based crop management solutions to Industry and Govt.
departments. Since then, AgriNet has executed several pioneer projects
on mapping cotton and insect host crops, sugarcane estimation and land
suitability using GIS, district wise Basmati acreage and production
estimation and crop maturity survey, Irrigation Project impact
evaluation in irrigation schemes, Crop condition mapping, Farm Forestry
species mapping, land use mapping and micro level (plot level) mapping.
5. Traditionally government would have been the user of your services, but is industry also showing interest in your services?
AgriNet struggled for >10 years to find business in Agriculture GIS
in India and realised that the high value projects were available less
earlier for private sector. Governments made huge investments in GIS
infrastructure in every state. And the operational projects were
available for state run agencies. But with the increasing awareness of
industry, small micro level customised studies are available for Private
sector. And as the interest in food and other agri commodities is
increasing among the processing and exporting stakeholders, they are
coming forward to use Remote Sensing & GIS for planning.
The customers repetitively ask the quality oriented GIS services
however, the competition is also increasing with the availability of
more RS & GIS professionals.
6. Do
you think the recent development in FDI in retail will lead to
increased interest from the industry in services being provided by
AgriNet?
Recent development in FDI retail will invite more agri-commodity
business and the competition will be high among the procurement
agencies. Everybody will be interested to know about each and every inch
of crop, its acreage and produce. Farmers will be benefitted in both
the ways; in not only form of good returns due to direct sale but also
their fields will be the baby of the stakeholders in commodity business
to take care. It will unfold many opportunities for Agri GIS industry.
7. Can you give an overview of use of Remote Sensing and GIS for agriculture in India?
Crop Inventory: ISRO and ICAR jointly did a study on
Root-wilt disease in coconut using aerial false colour aerial
photographs in 1969 (Dakshinamurthy et al, 1971). Since then there have
been many investigations on crop identification and area estimation
using air-borne to space-borne sensors for different crops.
ISRO-ICAR jointly conducted a systematic study on crop inventory using
CIR data under Agricultureal Resource Inventory and Survey Experiment
(ARISE) project in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh and Patiala
district of Punjab in 1977 7 1978 and found interesting results on
acreage of paddy being a levy crop that time. Studies using
multispectral, multi-temporal 11- channel images continued giving
encouraging results in other crops including cotton cultivars, their
vigour classes, sugarcane, wheat, mustard and paddy. NIR/Red band ratio
indicated further different behaviour due to crops, vigour and their
stage. The spectral-temporal profiles with red and near infrared bands
were used for crop identification and condition assessment (Ayyangar et
al. 1980; Rao et al. 1982). At the same time, the Indian scientists
started exploring land degradation, soil type mapping also. Early
studies using space borne data employed visual mapping of crops such as
wheat (Munshi, 1982) and rice (Rao & Rao, 1987, Singh 1983).
Subsequently the Remote Sensing studies graduated from visual to digital
analysis. With the launch of IRS-1A large projects such as Crop Acreage
and Production Estimation (CAPE) were implemented covering large area
crop inventory and yield modelling for important crops such as wheat,
rice, cotton, groundnut, sorghum and mustard. Apart from the major crops
studies on Chick Pea, Apple, Arecanut, Bengal Gram, Coconut, Mango,
Mentha, Mulberry, Orange, Potato, Soybean, Tobacco and tea were also
conducted using IRS data of LISS-I, LISS-II and LISS-III data at
regional level with higher accuracy. The limitations were with optical
data like cloud cover during kharif, which got resolved by using
microwave data, which has all weather capabilities. Exploratory studies
were conducted for crops like rice and groundnut usinf ERS SAR data.
With the availability of Radarsat data, inventory of kharif crops and
crop damage estimation due to floods became possible with 90% accuracy.
The focus shifted to village level from regional level with the
availability of high spatial resolution sensors. The experiences gained
through CAPE over more than a decade of implementation have been used in
formulating a project FASAL (Forecasting Agricultural output using
Space, Agro-meteorology and Land based observations) to meet
requirements of timeliness, accuracy and nation-wide coverage of major
crops like Wheat, Rice, Mustard etc.
Cropping Systems Analysis: It was felt necessary to
seek information on crop extent/vigor, yield, yearly crop rotation and
sequence practices in order to identify low productivity areas and to
improve agronomic practices so that the full yield potential of the
lands can be achieved. For this multispectral, multi-temporal satellite
imagery was used for cropping Systems analysis. The cropping Systems
Analysis was carried out by using GIS aided integration of
multi-temporal digital satellite data based classified crop inventory
information of the kharif (Rainy season), Rabi (Winter) and Summer crop
seasons including single season (Wheat, Rice, Sorghum & rainfed
crops), two seasons (Rice, Sunflower, Rainfed crops) and three seasons
crops (Sugarcane, Cotton, Rainfed crops). The study revealed that much
of the land in many areas has been giving low productivity under single
crop areas.
Agro-Ecological Zoning: In the mean time, the satellite data was being
used for Agro-ecological zoning keeping in view the sustainable
Agricultural Land-Use planning. AEZ encompasses the delineation of
landscales into regions or zones that are also relatively uniform with
respect to agro-climate, soils and terrain characteristics and are also
relatively uniform with respect to crop production possibilities.
Soil Resource Mapping:The organisations such as NBSS
& LUP, Soil & Land Use Survey of India set up GIS facilities and
strengthened to prepare soil resource inventory in many states at
smaller scale (1:2,50,000) and at large scale (1:50,000) using satellite
image and Land suitability maps were also prepared integrating the
irrigability, capability and soil maps to suggest better crop
management.
Soil Erosion Inventory:For sustainable agricultural
management with respect to soil conservation, the information on soil
erosion such as quantification of soil erosion loss and soil
conservation prioritization of watersheds/sub watersheds provides vital
inputs. Remote Sensing & GIS techniques have effectively been used
in India for preparation of soil erosion, inventories by integration of
physiography, soils, land use,/ land cover, slope map layers and use of
ancillary data of agro-met and soil physic-chemical properties.
Irrigation Project Impact Evaluation: Satellite
imagery has been used efficiently for evaluation of irrigation schemes
after their introduction by assessing the crop productivity right from
the Canal head to tail. AgriNet itself conducted such study using
multi-temporal satellite images for selected major, medium and minor
schemes in for Government of Andhra Pradesh.
Soil Carbon Dynamics land Productivity Assesment: To
assess the organic matter depletion of soil, long-term soil fertility
and sustained productivity of agro-ecosystems, the knowledge of carbon
dynamics of agro-ecosystems is essential. Already a methodology for
studying carbon dynamics such as annual crop Net Primary Productivity,
soil organic matter decomposition and annual soil carbon balance using
models has been developed in India.
Integrated Agricultural Drought Mitigation: National
Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring System (NADAMS) is
operationally being used in India by integrating NOAA satellite derived
spectral vegetation index and land use / land cover data and ground
meteorological station observed rainfall and aridity anomaly with
ancillary crop cultural information through GIS, to provide a realistic
assessment of agricultural drought suggested by a Decision Support
System.
Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development: Indian
experience of using satellite Remote Sensing and GIS techniques for
integrated mission for Sustainable Development was started. Its primary
goal was to integrate in GIS environment, information on natural
resources derived from satellite Remote Sensing such as soils, land use/
land cover, slope and surface and ground water potential etc. with
relevant socio-economic data at each watershed level, to arrive at
locality specific action plannedd for sustainable development.
Natural Resource Data Management System (NRDMS), Natural Resource
Information System (NRIS) and Land Degradation projects were the other
operational projects carried out at national level.