To assess crop damage Maharashtra using Drones, SatellitesHome

In Marathwada region there are drones flying over the fields, assessing crop losses due to deficit rainfall, as the Maharashtra government turns to technology to ensure timely intervention and compensations for farmers in an area notorious.

Private weather forecaster Skymet is using drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), to map 51 villages of Marathwada under a pilot project of the BJP-led state government, officials said.

The state has also started cloud seeding on a pilot basis in the Marathwada region to create artificial rains.

Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh governments, too, are expected to soon start using lowcost drones to assess crop losses.

Confirming the use of drones, Maharashtra agriculture commissioner Vikas Deshmukh said, "The state government has decided to carry out pilot projects for assessing crop yields using different technologies from four different companies.”

As per data provided by government officials, 6,000 hectares of agriculture land will be covered in the first phase of the project.

Skymet will use drones in Osmanabad rural, Bembli and Jagjee to assess the crop.

"We have asked Skymet to carry out their pilot during the kharif as well as the rabi season, for which we have identified the dominant crops in each circle. The objective of these studies is to get a technology that will help assess village level yields of crops," said Deshmukh.

Source: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/