India will launch in 2003 a remote sensing satellite meant exclusively
for agricultural purposes. The satellite will facilitate assessment of
crop yields and collection of other farm statistics.
This was disclosed by agriculture secretary Bhaskar Barua at a two-day
national workshop on improvement of agricultural statistics that began
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here yesterday.
Called IRS-P6, the satellite will be put in orbit by the indigenous
polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV).
The satellite will have three highly sensitive cameras designed
specifically to capture imageries that will yield farm statistics like
crop output figures and land use pattern.
The satellite will not be used for communication or any other purpose.
Inaugurating the workshop, Union agriculture minister Som Pal said
availability of reliable production data had become all the more
necessary after the launch of the new crop insurance scheme which was
applicable to all crops and all farmers, irrespective of their size of
holding.
The minister also gave details of the revised crop production figures
for 1998-99, putting foodgrain output at a record 203.5 million tonnes.
This is about 2.7 million tonnes higher than the figures projected in
March and over eight million tonnes more than the 1997-98 output of
192.43 million tonnes.
The previous highest food harvest was 199.44 million tonnes in 1996-97.
The upward revision of the estimates has been necessitated due to three
million tonnes of additional wheat production reported by the states
after the compilation of the figures in March.
The latest estimate of wheat output in 1998-99 is a record 73.5 million
tonnes, up by 7.6 million tonnes from 1997-98 when bad weather pulled
down production to 65.9 million tonnes.
The production estimates for rice remain almost unchanged at 84.48
million tonnes. Oilseeds, too, remain at 25.3 million tonnes.
The estimate for pulses has, however, been marginally lowered from the
March figure of 15.3 million tonnes. It has now been put at 15.19
million to