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Operationalization of Precision Farming in India
Ashish Mishra
B. E. Civil Engineering
ashishmishi@yahoo.com
P Chidambara Raj
Students, B.E. Geoinformatics
pc_raj@yahoo.com
D.Balaji
Students, B.E. Geoinformatics
mr_donb@yahoo.co.in
Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Guindy,
Anna University, Chennai – 600025.
Abstract:
Precision farming has been the buzzword of agricultural research around the globe in recent times. It is based on the philosophy of heterogeneity within homogeneity and requires precise information on the degree of variability for within field management. The aim is to vary the agricultural inputs in response to the varying conditions within the field.
The various attempts that have been made to operationalize precision farming in the West involve the use of intelligent devices like the yield mapper (comprising of a harvester, yield measuring sensor and a GPS), variable rate fertilizer rigs and the satellite imagery to supplement the information on the crop variability at a good spatial resolution as well as temporal resolution. Geographic Information System (GIS) integrates the information from all these devices, which culminates into Precision Farming. This mapping and agricultural machinery are together called the agricultural positioning system. In India also, there has been a lot of discussion about the adoption of this novel technology. Precision farming also features as one of the main research agenda in the tenth five-year plan. But the question which needs to be answered is the feasibility of such a technology in a developing country like India where the average size of operational land holding is only 1.57 hectares and nearly 30 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The cost of full-fledged agricultural positioning system is around ten to fifteen lac rupees, which is too prohibitive for any type of farmer in the country. Also there needs to be a substantially big landholding for easy movement of big machinery, which is not the case. This ground reality makes the scene just too dismal for any major development at least in the near future.
As part of an attempt to operationalize precision farming in India in the near future, the authors propose to use the existing methodology (VRT in integration with RS, GIS, and GPS technologies) with a greater emphasis on sowing seeds at proper spacing. Accuracy of the level of getting the required accuracy in cms by establishing a DGPS network all over India. The authors expect to get a substantial increase in the crop yield in which case the practice can be made operational on a taluk basis using the practice of collective tilling of land and sharing of benefits in the proportion to the size of the landholdings. In addition, the cost analysis of setting up the DGPS network and the benefit it yields with respect to India’s GDP is analyzed.
India is yet to reach the lowest level of potential productivity of the high-yielding varieties and if we are to increase our productivity on the global scale, precision farming is a must. The scope of the proposed study is realistic and achievable within the current capabilities of our economy. To conclude, a techno-green revolution which catalyses the economy is the need of this century.
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