Programme to provide pre-harvest crop estimate

NEW DELHI: The government has developed a system for pre-harvest crop production forecast using satellite data, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Tariq Anwar said on Tuesday.

Under Space Agro-Meteorology and Land Based Observations ( FASAL) programme, the pre-harvest forecast would be available using the satellite data provided by Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO), Anwar said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

"Forecasting agriculture using FASAL programme has been developed in collaboration with ISRO to have better pre-harvest crop production forecast for major crop at state/ country level in the country using satellite data for assessing cropped area and agro-meteorological model for estimating yields," said Tariq.

Under the FASAL, pre-harvest satellite data of Rice (karif and rabbi both), wheat, potato, mustard and jute are obtained.

Tariq further informed that technologies developed by the ISRO are now being implemented through the Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Center from April 2012.

The government had allotted Rs 8.66 crore for this project during last fiscal.