Satellite imagery for assessing crop yields in Shivamogga / KISAN Project

• In a bid to clear crop insurance claims faster, the Agriculture Ministry roped in Isro for pilot project to use satellite imagery for gathering accurate data on crop yields and the extent of losses due to natural disasters.
• The pilot project would be carried out in the rice fields of Shivamogga in Karnataka and Kurukshetra in Haryana as also in the cotton fields of Yavatmal in Maharashtra and Seoni in Madhya Pradesh.

• The project will also be carried out during the 2015-16 Rabi season in eight districts in same states to assess the crop yields of rice, wheat and sorghum
• Getting timely data on crop losses has always been a problem area which has led to delay in crop insurance payouts. The new project – Crop Insurance using Space Technology And Geo-informatics – would address the issue.
• Android-based application for assessing the large-scale damage to standing crop due to hailstorm was also launched.
• The app will be used by state agriculture officials and the data will help the Union Agriculture Ministry in having very fast assessment of damage to crops because of hailstorm. Farmers can download the app and send pictures of hailstorm to government officials using smartphones.
• This will help the government in very fast assessment of hailstorm damage to crops.
• The project will be jointly conducted by Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, India Meteorological Department, State Agriculture Departments and Remote Sensing Centres, Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)

KISAN (Crop Insurance using Space Technology and Geoinformatics) Project / Drones to help gauge crop damage

• To fasten payment of crop insurance claims to farmers, the Centre has launched a pilot programme Kisan, which will use satellite and drone-based imaging and other geospatial technology to get timely and accurate data on crop yields.
• The programme envisages use of high resolution remote sensing data both from satellite and drone-based imaging, sophisticated modelling activity and other geospatial technology for improving the accuracy of crop yield estimation through more efficient crop cutting experiments.
• Currently, the crop insurance claim is calculated on the basis of crop cutting experiments. However, there has always been a problem in getting timely and accurate data, due to which payment of claims to farmers were getting delayed and the government is concerned over the delays in settlements. To address this issue Kisan programme is being launched on pilot basis.

Advantages:

• Gives accurate data to enable crop insurance companies to give proper compensation to affected farmers.
• Helps develop index-based data for insurance companies.
• The scientific data collected by drones and collated with satellites imagery will be matched with traditional crop cutting experiments to arrive at a foolproof data.
• It also helps in block level yield estimation.
• Initially, the pilot study will be carried out in rice and cotton fields in four districts. The programme will be scaled up across the country after assessing the results.

The programme will be jointly conducted by Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, India Meteorological Department, State Agriculture Departments and Remote Sensing Centres, Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

App to collect hailstorm data

• The centre has launched an Android-based app for collection of data of hailstorm. This gives access to large-scale damage to standing crops.
• The app will be used by state agriculture officials for data collection and the data will help the union agriculture ministry in having very fast assessment of damage to crops because of hailstorm.
• Even farmers can download the app and send pictures of hailstorm.
• The app has been developed with the support of ISRO.
• The app can be used through smartphones for collection of hailstorm data along with photographs and locations and can be uploaded on real-time to ISRO’s Bhuvan server.
• The app allows the farmers to immediately send photos of their crop damage to officials concerned for immediate relief. This will cut the red tape in reaching assistance to farmers