Boosting horticulture through remote sensing: 

Boosting horticulture through remote sensing: 

Context:

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Monday announced March 2018 as the deadline to complete the ambitious project of developing the horticulture sector using remote sensing technology and geo-informatics.

Present status of horticulture in India:

• India is the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world and the biggest producer of fruits such as banana, mango, papaya and lemon among others.
• Horticulture sector has performed remarkably in the recent years.
• In 2014-15, India horticulture production stood at 281 million tonnes, over 30 million tonnes more than food grain production.

Reasons:

The reasons behind the success of horticultural crop output can be seen under the following heads –

1-      Socio-economic:

• Rising incomes of Indians leads to  a shift of consumption pattern from food-grains to horticulture crops.

2-   Policy making:

• Introduction of horticulture-centric schemes like National Horticulture Mission, setting up National Horticulture Board etc.
• Impetus to food processing industries

3-      Technological :

• Emphasis on improving irrigation facilities through National Mission on Micro Irrigation.
• Impetus to floating and vertical farming in horticulture by ICAR to enhance productivity.

Challenges before horticulture sector:

• Lack of market support.
• Paucity of post harvest produces management chain from farm to fork.
• Most growers do not get reasonable returns for their produce.
• Mass destruction of the produce due to lack of infrastructure facilities like warehouses.
• Farmers have been regulated by price slumps.    

Government’s initiatives to boost horticulture:

Project CHAMAN:

• In 2015, the Present government started project CHAMAN (Coordinated Horticulture Assessment and Management using geo-informatics), to prepare a comprehensive horticultural plan. Using remote sensing technology to study soil conditions, land use, weather and cropping pattern, the Centre has chosen 185 districts across the country where seven selected crops are being promoted.
• Once complete, the findings of the project would be shared with all states to give to boost to cultivation of horticultural crops.
• Different states have been divided into different groups to grow banana, mango, citrus fruits, potato, tomato, onion and chilli.
• The Centre would convene a meeting of the northeastern states by January next year as the report on horticulture development for this region was ready.
• Under CHAMAN, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra have been identified as the major banana-growing states.
• Mango cultivation is being promoted in Andhra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana
• Onion is the focus for Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

Price Stabilization Fund Scheme:

• The government has set up Price Stabilization Fund Scheme as a central sector scheme, with a corpus of Rs 500 crore.
• This is to support market interventions for price control of perishable agri-horticulture commodities during 2014-15 to 2016-17.
• It provides for advancing interest free loans to state governments and union territories and central agencies to support their working capital.
• It will be managed  by centrally  by  a Price Stabilization Fund Management Committee(PSFMC).

Advantages of horticulture sector:

• The horticulture sector, provides nutrient rich crops to the people and better remunerative prices to the farmers and increase their incomes.
• Horticulture crops play significant role in improving the productivity of land, generating employment, enhancing exports, improving economic conditions of the farmers and entrepreneurs and providing food and nutritional security to the people.

What is remote sensing?

• Remote sensing is nothing but a means to get the reliable information about an object without being in physical contact with the object.
• It is on the observation of an object by a device separated from it by some distance utilizing the characteristics response of different objects to emissions in the electromagnetic energy is measured in a number of spectral bands for the purpose of identification of the object.
• Satellite data through remote sensing provides the actual  synoptic view of large are at a time, which is not possible from conventional survey methods.
• The process of data acquisition and analysis is very fast through Geographic Information System (GIS) as compared to conventional methods.

Advantages of using remote sensing in horticulture:

• Remote sensing (RS) is an advanced tool that aids in gathering and updating information to develop scientific management plans.
• RS provides electromagnetic information about the Earth’s surface and atmosphere.
• It can be exploited for efficient site specific management and precision horticulture.
• It can be used for crop identification, crop area, biomass and yield estimation.
• Remote sensing can be exploited for soil and nutrient management.
• It can be exploited for assessing damage by biotic and a biotic stress.

Other advantages of Remote Sensing

• Easy data acquisition over inaccessible area.
• Data acquisition at different scales and resolutions
• The images are analyzed in the laboratory, thus reducing the amount of fieldwork.
• Colour composites can be produced from three individual band images, which provide better details of the area then a single band image or aerial photograph.
• Stereo-satellite data may be used for three-dimensional studies. At present, all advantages listed above have been demonstrated either operationally or experimentally:

Conclusion:

• The use of remote sensing technology has been rapidly expanded for the development of key sectors like horticulture. The remote sensing provides various platforms for agricultural survey. Satellite imagery has unique ability to provide the actual synoptic vies of large area at a time, which is not possible for conventional survey methods and also the process of data acquisition and analysis are very fast through GIS (Geographic Information System) as compared to the conventional methods.