Migrating towards technology-based crop yield estimation - Agriculture Post

The Government of India plans to migrate towards technology-based yield estimation from the conventional Crop Cutting Experiment (CCE) based yield estimation approach. Towards this, few pilot studies have been initiated by taking various government and private agencies onboard. During Kharif 2019, pilot studies were conducted through 12 agencies in 64 districts of 15 states for nine crops envisaging innovative technologies such as high-resolution satellite data (optical and microwave), unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), advanced multi-parameter crop models, mobile applications for field data collection, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), sensor networks, internet of things (IoT), field-based digital photographs, handheld instruments and scientifically designed sampling plans. These approaches were validated in Rabi 2019-20 in 15 blocks of six states. The pilot studies were scaled up to 100 districts with the help of seven agencies for paddy crop in Kharif – 2020, and for paddy and wheat in the Rabi season of 2020-21 in 100 districts of 13 states.