21st April 2025 (15 Topics)
ISRO satellites forecast wheat production
Context
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has used satellite technology to forecast that India's wheat production from its eight major wheat-growing states will be around 122.724 million tonnes for the 2024–25 Rabi season. This marks a growing use of remote sensing in agriculture monitoring — a crucial step in tech-driven precision farming and food security planning.
What did ISRO do?
- ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) used a system called CROP – Comprehensive Remote Sensing Observation on Crop Progress. This is a semi-automated and scalable satellite monitoring framework that:
- Tracks crop sowing, growth, and harvesting in near real-time.
- Uses data from Indian satellites like:
- EOS-04 (RISAT-1A) – for Synthetic Aperture Radar (can penetrate clouds).
- EOS-06 (Oceansat-3) – mainly for atmospheric and coastal data.
- Resourcesat-2A – for high-resolution land use and crop mapping.
- By combining data from these satellites, ISRO:
- Mapped wheat crop area across states.
- Monitored crop health using optical and radar images.
- Estimated sowing progress and growth status during the Rabi season.
- Used crop simulation models (mathematical models that mimic how crops grow under certain weather and soil conditions) to forecast production.
- Key Findings by ISRO (as of March 31, 2025)
- Wheat sown area: 330.8 lakh hectares (satellite data). Very close to the figure from the Ministry of Agriculture (324.38 lakh hectares as of Feb 2025).
- Estimated wheat production in eight major wheat-growing states: 122.724 million tonnes.
- These 8 states are: Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra. These states account for almost the entire wheat output of the country.
Wheat in India’s Agriculture
Indian Wheat Growing Zones:The entire wheat growing areas of the country has been categorized into 6 major zones as follows:
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