ISRO, IIHR Together to Provide Production Advisory for Mangoes

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru are working on a pilot project to provide mango output advisory to the Karnataka government. The 1st such advisory can be expected by the end of 2020.

Director of IIHR, M.R Dinesh said the institute in a meeting with ISRO discussed on making use of - space, drone and ground-level data for determining crop production. Both the organisations entered into an accord three months back to collect data and superimpose them to create an advisory for perennial crops. The advisory will provide a warning on the estimated quantity of output.

Indian Space Research Organisation will give space and drone data, while the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research scientists will gather ground-level data. The project is being started on a pilot basis in the major mango growing areas of Ramnagar and Kolar districts in Karnataka.

Affirming that the project may need at least a year or more to emerge with production advisory, Dinesh said the recognition of parameters such as ground data, climate data, moisture, humidity, temperature, soil types and soil fertility is significant for this project. He said proper data must be obtained in all the seasons.

He further said that “We have begun the project with the mango crop hoping that the 1st advisory for mangoes may come by the end of 2020”.

He added that the advisory can give information right from flowering of the crop to the estimated crop size in the concerned season.  The government through this advisory can fix a base price for the crop.