State govt. plans to make use of remote sensing data to finalise rabi extent for Rythu Bharosa

State govt. plans to make use of remote sensing data to finalise rabi extent for Rythu Bharosa

As part of the State government plan to extend the investment support to farmers under the Rythu Bharosa programme for the ongoing rabi season from the coming Sankranti festival, it has decided to utilise the remote sensing data to estimate the actual extent under cultivation.

Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao along with senior authorities of the Agriculture Department held a meeting with the representatives of companies who estimate the extent of cultivation with the help of remote sensing data here on Saturday. He explained to the representatives that the government had decided to give investment support of ₹7,500 per acre only to the extent under cultivation.

He stated that data on farmer-wise and crop-wise extent of cultivation would be collected by Agriculture Extension Officers at mandal-level from time to time and it would be compared with the remote sensing data on survey number wise extent under cultivation and the extent that is not under cultivation. The date would be utilised to implement Rythu Bharosa and also to implement the crop insurance scheme.

Further, the data would be utilised to identify the condition of crops, pest and insect attacks on crops and estimate the crop loss in the event of flood and cyclone. The government is ready to make use of the available technology for various needs of agriculture sector, he said.

Representatives of the companies explained to the Minister about similar projects taken up by them in the past along with the details of crop-wise extent estimated in two mandals in the State as their sample work and village-wise extent under cultivation so far this season. They also explained about the lands not useful for cultivation with the help of digital maps and models on pest-infested crops prepared by making use of the artificial intelligence.

The Minister told the companies to be prepared with complete details and data so that it could be submitted to the technical committee formed by the government and forward it to the Cabinet Sub-Committee with its recommendations to the Cabinet for taking a decision in the matter.

Secretary (Agriculture) M. Raghunandan Rao, Director of Agriculture B. Gopi and others participated in the meeting.