Informative Article

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.