Remote sensing can help boost farm output

Valuable information on availability of water in reservoirs through satellite remote sensing can help increase agricultural production in the country.

"Our productivity is only 1.7 tonnes per hectare, while the global production level stands at 3.2 tonnes a hectare. Hence, there is ample scope for us to improve productivity using remote sensing data," said Isro senior scientist CJ Jagadeesh in Mysore.

Participating in a technical seminar on the 'Convergence of Technologies for Rapid Development' organised by the local Institution of Engineers, he said, "We are still following the old system of irrigation and reservoir water scheduling. We are yet to go in for new technologies like remote sensing, which can help assess the water potential in reservoirs which is vital for agricultural and other operations."

Explaining the enormous development that has taken place in the area of remote sensing, he bemoaned that much of it remained neglected till now as far as the agriculture sector was concerned, particularly in important areas like water resources and management, sustainable land and potential of drinking water.

"Technology can bring certain culture to river basin planning and management as well," Jagadeesh said.

Stating that river basin planning is the need of the hour, he said Isro had taken up a study on locating check dams at Chikkanayakanahalli. It studied soil and geology of the area, mapped integrated groundwater prospects and collected ground water resource data.

On the basis of the study, it suggested static modules. The maps can be used for assessing ground and surface water harvesting scientifically. The departments concerned should use these maps.

Isro has also developed an information system by undertaking the watershed development project, Sujala, for Rs 68 crore in Karnataka.

It has set up 200 village remote sensing community centres, including 30 in Karnataka, with facilities like connectivity, satellite bandwidth, telemetrics, tele-education, NR database and telemedicine, he added.