A two-day programme was held by the department of science and technology and biotechnology on applications of geoinformatics in agriculture recently.
The programme was inaugurated by the department minister Ujjal Biswas. The purpose of the programme was to equip the senior officials of the agriculture department on the technicalities of handling databases.
Mr Biswas said the initiative is significant because of the advance assessment of crop acreage and yield by integrating geospatial technologies by artificial intelligence/machine learning. He pointed out that the interpretative analysis of the spatial and attribute data prepared under this project will help in decision making on food security issues.
As agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy, the timely availability of accurate and reliable information will be crucial for the effective planning of storage, distribution and marketing of crops and estimation of deficits, if any.
The department of science technology and biotechnology is implementing a project on digital agriculture in collaboration with the ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare and state agriculture department under the NeGP-A for estimation of crop acreage and yield including assessment of crop health using geospatial technologies. Ten major crops grown in Bengal in the Kharif and Rabi and Zaid seasons will be covered under the project. The spatial datasets prepared through this endeavour will be shared with the agriculture department to support the developmental planning and augmentation of services.
Hirdyesh Mohan, additional chief of the department of science and technology and biotechnology explained the importance of digital agriculture and the infusion of modern technologies in the farm sector.