Why in News:

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has proposed dedicated satellites for supporting the country’s agriculture sector.
• Discussions have been held with the Department of Agriculture, the Government of India, on the proposed ‘Bharat Krishi Satellite’ programme

How will it work?

• A minimum of two satellites will be needed to guarantee adequate coverage of the entire agricultural area of the country.
• They will aid a gamut of farm-related activities related to crop forecasting, pesticide application, irrigation, soil data, and generation of critical data related to drought.
• Nitrogen fertilizer is one of the major limitations for wheat production in some parts of India- We can use remote sensing to better understand yield gaps, which are the difference between actual yields a farmer gets and possible yields based on local growing conditions.
• Using satellite imagery we can track how mechanical fertilizer spreaders could close yield gaps in low-yielding farms. Mechanical fertilizer spreaders help farmers distribute fertilizers across a field more evenly than hand-broadcasting. These low-cost tools could improve farmer income and nitrogen use efficiency.
• The high-resolution imagery enables to develop a reliable model of crop yields across a wider area.
• Receive data on vegetation water stress, evapotranspiration and soil organic carbon data on top of the weather forecast data from the nearest weather station.

The need

• Croplands cover over half of India’s land area, and the agricultural sector employs about 590 million people in the country. 
• Researchers can’t rely on census data alone to monitor agriculture in India because many farms are small (less than 2 hectares), whereas censuses typically report statistics at the state or national level and mask important heterogeneity.
• Remote sensing provides an essential vantage point for monitoring agriculture in India and investigating ways to sustainably improve crop yields.

Issues faced

• Current deficiencies include a discontinuity in earth observation missions, low utilisation of available remote sensing data, technology gaps and absence of a streamlined mechanism for data processing and dissemination as required by the industry

Way forward

• An ‘Earth Observation Council’ be created for addressing the current deficiencies in earth observation capabilities and data utilisation. Such a council can tackle shortcomings in this area in a centralised manner
• Making farmers the end-users of SAAS and allied agritech products.
• A shift of end-users from state administration to digitally-literate farmers has to be made.

Additional Information

Satellites designed by ISRO- The satellites designed by ISRO, which are currently in operation, to support these services and applications, include Resourcesat-2, Resourcesat-2A, RISAT-1, Cartosat-1, Kalpana-1, INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR.

How does the Ministry of Agriculture use satellites

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare is another key end-user of ISRO’s satellite data for its projects such as

1. Crop Forecasting– Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land-based observations (FASAL)
2. Drought Assessment- National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring Systems (NADAMS)
3. Horticulture assessment and development- Coordinated programme on Horticulture Assessment and Management using Geoinformatics (CHAMAN)
4. Crop insurance- Crop Insurance using Space technology and Geoinformatics (KISAN) now incorporated into Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna

References:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/isro-proposes-dedicated-satellites-for-the-agricultural-sector/article66005541.ece
2. https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/articles/satellites-help-improve-crop-yields-india
3. https://pib.gov.in/newsite/printrelease.aspx?relid=155408