India: Agri ministry to use remote sensing tech to map area under potato and onion cultivation

The agriculture ministry plans to use remote sensing technology to map the area under potato and onion cultivation for the entire country to provide an accurate estimate of the likely production of the respective crops. This would be extended to cover orchards in the next phase. “We are working on producing robust estimates of the area and production of important crops like potato and onion for the whole country through remote sensing,” said an agriculture ministry official. The ministry is also working on developing a methodology for precision farming and assessment of major vegetable crops under a project called ‘Coordinated Horticulture Assessment and Management using Geo-Informatics’ (Chaman). Launched in September 2014, the project is targeted to be completed in three years. More