Governments Can Now Get Accurate Yield Forecasts & Save Money
Last month, a story headlined Bumper Onion Crop in Poll-bound MP May Prove to be Bane of Shivraj Singh Chouhan Govt emerged. In India, where 190 million people go hungry each day, this should have been a story of celebration.
However, the reality is that the bumper crop resulted in loss of income for farmers, who were forced to sell onion at 50 paisa per kilo, and to aid farmers the government will bleed the state exchequer to pay the difference between onion sale price and the minimum support price, which was Rs 8 per kilo. MP has 111,000 hectares under onion cultivation and the yield per hectare is 24 tonnes. So, the state exchequer will lose at least Rs 19.98 billion for just one crop, which was in surplus. It would be far worse, if there was a shortage as then even the consumers are affected.
Now, the government does have measures like yield estimation to tackle such problems. Yield assessment is a vital process that provides decision makers like the government with critical crop production forecasts to prepare policy measures if the crop needs to be imported in case of a shortfall or exported when in surplus.
However, the current yield estimation method is time consuming, expensive and error-prone when conducted on scale — essential for the government. Studies have found remote sensing to be cost-effective, accurate, and capable of gathering information on a global scale. Remote sensing can be conducted using drone or satellite with the former having been found to reduce yield gap –difference between optimal and actual yield — by up to 25%.
FarmGuide’s Yield Assessment App incorporates remote sensing to timely forecast accurate crop specific estimates at the farm level. Our app captures video and GPS coordinates of assessment area, and validates the estimate using remote sensing. The government will also be able to remotely monitor the process on a real-time basis.
FarmGuide offers governments a cost-effective, accurate and timely yield assessment so that they are prepared to handle a shortfall or surplus in any crop.
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