In the days to come, if Nagpur’s oranges will have competition from the citrus fruit coming out of Arunachal Pradesh’s Papum Pare district, then Nashik’s grape farmers will see a challenge to their supremacy from cultivators in Mizoram’s Champhai district. Ditto for Jalgaon and Hajipur’s bananas as the producers will find competition coming from farmers in Assam’s Goalpara area and West Tripura.
Aided by remote sensing technology, the Centre has chalked out an ambitious plan to develop the North-East as the next major hub for fruits and spices like turmeric and cardamom.
Remote sensing usually refers to the technology of acquiring information about the earth’s surface and the atmosphere, using sensors onboard aircraft, satellites, space shuttles as platforms.
It is awaiting results from 185 districts across 12 States where the technology has been put to use for cultivation of banana, orange, mango, potato, onion, tomato and chilli crops.
With the cultivation results are likely by January next year, the Agriculture Ministry expects the farmers’ income to double, an assertion and a promise that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been making for the last three years.
Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Monday reviewed the pioneer project called ‘Coordinated Horticulture Assessment and Management using Geo-Informatics’ (CHAMAN), launched three years ago to boost the horticulture sector through the use of remote sensing techniques.
According to the Agriculture Ministry, remote sensing technology has revealed that the soil of Arunachal Pradesh’s Papum Pare district is suitable for orange cultivation, while the soil of West Sikkim district is good for growing cardamom. Similarly, West Tripura district in Tripura is suitable for banana cultivation, while Dimapur district of Nagaland and Senapati district of Manipur are good for pineapple farming.
The data further revealed that in Mizoram, 578.51 hectare of land is highly suitable for grape cultivation, while 4,724.68 hectare is moderately suitable for the fruit. A total of 7,021 hectare is found marginally suitable and 32 hectares is unsuitable for grape crops.
Similarly, remote sensing technology revealed that the soil of Nuzvid district of Andhra Pradesh is highly suitable for mango plantation. A total of 5,019 hectare is highly suitable for mango plantation but only 820 hectare is being used for it. The data also shows that 8,343 hectare of land falls under the moderately-suitable category. The Nuzvid region in Andhra is known for supply of high quality and tasty mangoes to national and international markets.
The wetland of Darbanga district of Bihar has also been found to be suitable for fox nut cultivation.
The data further shows that a total 24,700 hectare of land was not under cultivation for four months in Bhiwani district of Haryana in 2015.
India is the second-largest producer of vegetables and fruits in the world, and is first in the production of banana, mango, lime, lemon, papaya and okra.
“The project is being implemented by the Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre of the Department of Agriculture and is likely to be completed in March 2018,” the Minister said.
launched in September 2014, the project is targeted to be completed in three years at an estimated cost of Rs 13.38 crore. The programme aims to develop a methodology to estimate the area under farming and its likely production using remote sensing technology and sample survey methodology.
The Minister informed that the interim reports of North Eastern States’ Site Suitability Studies will be handed over to the respective State Governments by January 2018 for immediate consideration.
“The wasteland and jhum (shifting cultivation) areas identified for one crop in one district each of North Eastern States, under site suitability studies would be utilised by the State Governments to take up the projects of development of these areas on a priority basis,” the Minister said.
Italy, Iran and the USA are other countries which are using remote sensing technology for horticulture crops.
The Minister said the income of farmers will increase by growing selected crops in the high suitable areas identified under CHAMAN in the current wastelands. “It gives methodology for preparing reliable estimates of crops,” Singh said, adding that this methodology will help the farmers to generate better income. The post-harvest damage of farmers would be significantly reduced by creation of cold storages, he concluded.