Eminent space scientist and former Chairman of ISRO UR Rao has stressed the use of space technology in improving agriculture productivity in the country.

In an interaction with students of various schools from Dakshina Kannada district at The Yenepoya School in Mangaluru on Thursday, he said that ‘evergreen revolution’ is the need of the hour for the country. Space technology can play a major role in this ‘evergreen revolution’, he said.

Urging the agricultural department to make best use of space technology, he said agriculture inputs must be dictated by what space imagery tells about the fields.

Now the forecast on the harvest of agricultural production is based on the information provided by some local level revenue official. The accuracy in such estimations may not be correct.

The space imagery provided by various satellites of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) provides good insight into the production forecast also.

Giving an example of his recent visit to the US where he had met a farmer, he said the farmer there used the imagery of ISRO’s remote sensing satellites to improve the productivity on his 2000 acres of land.

Indian farmers should also be able to get such benefits from the space technology, he said.

The ‘evergreen revolution’ should combine space technology with the agriculture for the better yield from the land, he said. The average yield from a hectare of land will improve significantly if the space technology is used in agriculture, he added.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW