ISRO to include more crops for forecasting

Thiruvanathapuram: ISRO on Tuesday said it plans to improve pre-harvest crop forecasting by including more major crops as part of its space based inputs for food security.

"In terms of input for food security, the current use of space-based inputs wherein pre-harvest crop forecasting is given for eight major crops, will be improved to cover more number of major crops and some minor crops also," ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar said on Tuesday.

Kumar said space-based inputs would be enhanced further for suitability assessment for expanding horticulture,bringing more wasteland and fallow lands under cultivation, pest and nutrient management, post-harvest infrastructure planning and species-wise potential fishing zone advisory?towards ensuring food security.

"To support developmental targets planned through the Sustainable Development Goals, ISRO has worked out a vision, strategy and action plans," he said.

In the coming years, the programme is set to emphasise on risk reduction by improving the early warning of disasters and real-time advisories to mitigate the risks, he said.

Large-scale densification of in-situ weather monitoring systems such as Doppler Weather Radars, Automatic Weather Stations and wind profilers would supplement satellite based observations, in future, he said.

Referring to tele-medicine and tele-education, Kumar said that besides ensuring continuity of data and services for such operational applications, a strategy has been drawn to augment the space systems through development of newer instruments.

"It is also planned to strengthen applications through development of advanced models, algorithms, techniques to meet the evolving needs in these priority areas," he said.

He was speaking at the Kerala State meet on "Promoting Space Technology based Tools and Applications for Governance and Development.

Referring to ISRO's activities, he said it had completed 36 missions in a row, which proved the high-dependability of PSLV for a wide variety of space launches.

"Similarly, the GSLV with our indigenous cryostage has performed well in recent flights and we will continue to serve the nation," he said.

Kumar said ISRO had recently also carried out some technology demonstrations like?RLV-TD (Reusable launch vehicle) and Scramjet to reduce cost of access to space.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan launched the geospatial gateway of ISRO, 'Bhuvan' dedicated portal for Kerala at the function.