Technological convergence can help farm growth: Kasturirangan

Bangalore, Sep 13 (UNI) Rajya Sabha member and former ISRO Chairman K Kasturirangan said through convergence of space science, information and bio-technologies, the country can achieve accelerated farm growth.

Speaking on 'The Role of ISRO in Agriculture Development' at the 78th birthday celebrations of Union Minister of State for Planning M V Rajashekaran here, he said that by adopting such optimal strategies using highly scientific farming methods, the country could achieve production of up to four tonnes per hectare in the coming decade from the present 1.5 tonnes.

Dr Kasturirangan said the constellation of Indian weather satellites continued to play a significant role in improving the accuracy of weather forecasting, be it to predict the possible drought conditions, floods or cyclones.

Stating that the agricultural sector had emerged as a knowledge industry, he said space programmes had helped in various levels of agriculture from planting to harvesting. ISRO is developing its first microwave remote sensing satellite, RISAT, which would help in tropical meteorological predictions.

Dr Kasturirangan said the agricultural sector was being haunted by problems like degradation of soil, pests and diseases, low productivity and unreliable monsoon.

Through its satellites, ISRO was helping the Indian farmer by providing remote sensing inputs for precision agriculture. Use of technology had resulted in agriculture not being a blind alley for the farmer any more, he said.

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