Here is a term paper on ‘Agriculture’. Find paragraphs, long and short term papers on ‘Agriculture’ especially written for school and college students.
Term Paper on Agriculture
Term Paper Contents:
- Term Paper on the Meaning of Agriculture
- Term Paper on the Branches of Agriculture
- Term Paper on Agriculture as an Innovation
- Term Paper on the Stages of Agricultural Development
- Term Paper on the Evolution of Modern Agriculture
- Term Paper on Ancient Indian Agriculture in Civilization Era
- Term Paper on the Importance of Agriculture
- Term paper on the Space Applications of Agriculture
Term Paper # 1. Meaning of Agriculture:
Word agriculture is derived from the Latin term Ager cultura (field cultivation) and nay be defined as the science, art & business of producing crops and livestock for commerce/economic purposes. It includes crop husbandry, animal husbandry, dairy, soil science, horticulture, fishery, forestry, agricultural engineering etc.
An activity of man primarily aimed at production of food, fiber and fuel etc. by optimum use of terrestrial resources is called agriculture.
Agriculture is the artificial cultivation and processing of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fibers and other byproducts.
Agriculture is the science & art of producing crops or animal under supervision of human in a specific location.
Agriculture helps to meet the basic needs of human and their civilization by providing food, clothing, shelters, medicine and recreation. Hence, agriculture is the most important enterprise in the world. It is a productive unit where the free gifts of nature namely land, light, air, temperature and rain water etc., are integrated into single primary unit indispensable for human beings.
Secondary productive units namely animals including livestock, birds and insects, feed on these primary units and provide concentrated products such as meat, milk, wool, eggs, honey, silk and lac. Agriculture provides food, feed, fiber, fuel, furniture, raw materials and materials for and from factories; provides a free fare and fresh environment, abundant food for driving out famine; favours friendship by eliminating fights.
Satisfactory agricultural production brings peace, prosperity, harmony, health and wealth to individuals of a nation by driving away distrust, discord and anarchy. Agriculture consists of growing plants and rearing animals in order to yield produce and thus, it helps to maintain a biological equilibrium in nature.
India is a vast country. Different climates, soils and ecological situations exist in our country. India possesses a total geographical area of 329 m ha; out of which about 143 m ha is cultivated land. After the independence, India has made a tremendous development in the field of Agriculture. This is related with the development and production of agriculture. There is substantial increase in the acreage and production of different crops.
There have been several revolutions in India pertaining to agriculture. India has passed through a number of revolutions related to agriculture viz. green revolutions, white revolution, blue revolutions and other revolutions. Today, India is the largest producer of milk, fruits, cashew, coconut and tea in the world. Apart from these crops, India is the second largest producer of wheat, vegetables and sugar in the world.
On the other hand, we are third in the world in terms of the production of tobacco & rice. Consequent upon the significant development in the field of agriculture, the availability of food grains per capita per day has increased from 350 g in 1951 to about 500 g now-a-days, whereas, the population has increased from 35 to more than 120 crores during this period.
Term Paper # 2. Branches of Agriculture
:
Agriculture has three main spheres viz., Geoponic (Cultivation in earth-soil), Aeroponic (cultivation in air) and Hydroponic (cultivation in water). Agriculture is the branch of science encompassing the applied aspects of basic sciences. The applied aspects of agricultural science consist of study of field crops and their management (Arviculture) including soil management.
1. Crop Production:
It deals with the production of various crops, which includes food crops, fodder crops, fiber crops, sugar, oil seeds, etc. It includes agronomy, soil science, entomology, pathology, microbiology, etc. The aim is to have better food production and how to control the diseases.
2. Horticulture:
Branch of agriculture deals with the production of flowers, fruits, vegetables, ornamental plants, spices, condiments (includes narcotic crops-opium, etc., which has medicinal value) and beverages.
3. Agricultural Engineering:
It is an important component for crop production and horticulture particularly to provide tools and implements. It is aiming to produce modified/improved tools to facilitate proper animal husbandry and crop production tools, implements and machinery in animal production.
4. Forestry:
It deals with production of large scale cultivation of perennial trees for supplying wood, timber, rubber, etc. and also raw materials for industries.
5. Animal Husbandry:
The animals are being produced or maintained. Maintenance of various types of livestock is done for direct energy (work energy). Husbandry is common for both crop and animals. The objective is to get maximum output by feeding, rearing, etc. The arrangement of crops is done to get minimum requirement of light or air. This arrangement is called geometry. Husbandry is for direct and indirect energy.
6. Fishery Science:
It is for marine fish and inland fishes including shrimps and prawns.
7. Home Science:
Application and utilization of agricultural produces in a better manner. When utilization is enhanced production is also enhanced, e.g., a crop once in use in South was found that it had many uses now.
On integration, all the seven branches, first three is grouped as for crop production group and next two for animal management and last two as allied agriculture branches.
Broadly in practice, agriculture is grouped in four major categories as under:
A. Crop Improvement:
(i) Plant breeding and genetics
(ii) Bio-technology
B. Crop Management:
(ii) Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry
(iii) Seed technology
(iv) Agricultural Microbiology
(v) Crop Physiology
(vi) Agricultural Engineering
(vii) Environmental Sciences
(viii) Agricultural Meteorology
C. Crop Protection:
(i) Agricultural Entomology
(ii) Plant Pathology
(iii) Nematology
D. Social Sciences:
(i) Agricultural Extension
(ii) Agricultural Economics
Allied Disciplines:
(i) Agricultural Statistics
(ii) English and other regional languages
(iii) Mathematics
(iv) Bio-Chemistry etc.
Before Agriculture:
Before agriculture, the practice by which people began to grow plants on purpose and domestic animals, ancient humans survived by hunting animals, fishing and gathering plants for food. Modern humans usually view this life style in unfavourable light. Hunter-gatherers are stereotype as primitive, unskilled and ignorant among other perceptions. Much of this prejudicial view of these ancient people sometimes betrays the lack of adequate understanding of the lifestyle of these people by modern man.
The art of hunting and gathering did not appear to have completely vanished into void with the advent of modern crop cultivation. Studies show that, pockets of surviving hunter- gatherers still exist in area where the land and climate do not favour deliberate crop cultivation as a profitable enterprise. These areas include parts of the Kalahari Desert, the Arctic region and pockets of the tropical rain forest.
It is estimated that, the bulk (60-80%) of the food of hunter-gatherers consisted of plants and plant products. The wild plant resources of these people consisted seeds such as wild rice (Zizania aquatic), and wild progenitors of common Asian rice (Oriza sativa). Other grass species used included Panicum spp. Legumes both tuberous and non-tuberous, were also source of food for ancient people. They used the seeds, pods and leaves of these plants for food. Examples of wild legumes are Acacia, Vigna, Dolichos, and canavalia.
Leguminous materials have been known to contain highly toxic substances. In order of these technically challenged people to have used them for food, they have to discover methods of detoxifying and processing these plants and their products to make them safe for consumption. These discoveries had to be based on trial and error. Poisonous extracts were used as poison for arrowheads and darts that were utilized for hunting.
Roots & tuber plants, especially of the genus Dioscorea (yam) were widely used in the tropical region for food. Bulbs from the family Liliaceae, wild onion (Allium), and sweet potato (Ipomea) were important food sources. Just like legumes, roots & tuber plants frequently contained toxic substances that had to be detoxified to make them safe for use.
Hunter-gatherers obtained oil from animal sources. Plant oils were also obtained from species including coconut (Cocos nucifera), oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), shea butter (Butyrosprmum) and olive (Olea). Wild fruits and nuts are some of the readily visible & attractive sources of food under any circumstance. Examples of these sources of food are bramble fruit (Rubus), grape (Vitis), citrus, Musa, chestnut (Castanea) and Carica.
Vegetables and spices from the families Solanaceae & Cucurbitaceae were particularly important to hunter-gatherers. Species of Solarium, Capsicum and Lycopersicon are widely distributed. Wild watermelon (Colocynthus citrulus) occurs in South Africa.
Hunter-gatherers were very knowledgeable. To successfully survive they had to understand their environment very well. To be nomadic, they had to know when were to migrate? They acquired botanical knowledge, which helped them to use toxic plants for food through detoxification by heating or leaching.
They learnt to use plants for medicinal purposes. Non-agricultural communities have been known to employ various practices, such as burning to alter vegetation. Burning of brush favoured certain species. The hunter-gatherers understood the life cycle of plants, their adaptation and distribution well enough to be able to anticipate and locate abundant food sites.
Term Paper # 3. Agriculture as an Innovation
:
Is it really possible to determine precisely where and how and when agriculture started? Views of agricultural origins are diverse, ranging from mythological to ecological. Whatever prompted humans to purposely raise their plants in a specific area and confine their animals did not likely happen overnight. It was an evolutionary process that eventually transformed plants from being independent, wild progenitors to fully dependent and domesticated cultivars.
Various mythologies suggest that, agriculture is a divine gift to man. Others explain that, the shift from nomadic lifestyle to sedentary plant and animal culture was necessitated by religious obligations which required animals and certain plants to keep for ritual sacrifices to gods.
Of all the views of agricultural origins, suggesting agriculture as an invention and discovery appears to be most enduring. There were various views as to how this discovery was made. Charles Darwin suggested that, first human had to become sedentary for this discovery to occur. Byproducts of their lifestyle, specifically garbage had to be disposed off in a refuse dump near their habitation.
Out of this discarded heap of waste, seeds from a useful plant (that had been previously gathered for food or medicine) are likely to have germinated and grown the fertile soils of the refuse dump to produce abundantly. Some wise person was bound to have made the observation of these plants and the connection between planting seeds & producing desired plants in a certain location in the vicinity of his or her domicile. This is the plant domestication by happy accident model.
Carl Sauer further developed this theory. It was suggested that, not only did the inventors of agriculture have to be sedentary, primitive agriculturists were most likely to have hailed from fishing communities. Such communities had to be located in wooded lands where it was relatively easier to till the soil, not having to contend with soil binding effects of grass roots in grassland. Further, these discoverers would have previously acquired certain skills in other aspects of living in the wild that would predispose them to agricultural experimentation.
From this and other presuppositions, the most likely candidate for an area of origin of agriculture was Southeast Asia, from where it spread to China, India, the Near East Africa, the Mediterranean and lastly North & West Europe. Edgar Anderson later strengthened the Sauer model with a genetic component. He suggested that hybridization would have produced new genetic recombinants from which useful selections could be found.
What do you think were factors that influenced the use of certain plants for food by hunter-gatherers? The hunter-gatherers in pre-agricultural times were influenced by certain characteristics of the plants they selected, which certainly impacted the domestication process.
The plants that were frequently gathered for food were likely to have been easier to harvest, available in large quantities and easy to transport back to their habitations. It should have been important that, plants were available with great predictability and seasonal distribution.
The plant parts harvested would have been more preferred, if they were large in size, as in the case of yams. For grains with smaller seeds, they were likely to have been attractive if they could be harvested in large numbers from dense stand. As for grain, a plant with large grain such as wheat would have been favoured over smaller grained plants such as barley and oats. However, the smaller grains would have easier to harvest and hence, a possible reason why oat was domesticated before wheat & barley.
Term Paper # 4. Stages of Agricultural Development
:
Excavations, legends and remote sensing tests reveal that agriculture is 10,000 years old. Women by their intrinsic insight first observed that plants come up from seeds. Men concentrated on hunting and gathering (Paleolithic and Neolithic periods) during that time.
Women were the pioneers for cultivating useful plants from the wild flora. They dug out edible roots and rhizomes and buried the small ones for subsequent harvests. They used animal meat as main food and their skin for clothing. The following Table 2.1 gives an idea about the scenario of agricultural development.
A primitive form of agriculture in which people working with the crudest of tools, cut down a part of the forest, burnt the underneath growth and started new garden sites. After few years, when these plots lost their fertility or became heavily infested with weeds or soil- borne pests, they shifted to a new site. This is also known as Assartage system (cultivating crops till the land is completely worn-out) contrary to the fallow system.
Fallow system means land is allowed for a resting period without any crop. In India, shifting cultivation existed in different states, with different names as jhum cultivation in Assam, podu in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, kumari in Western Ghats, walra in south east Rajasthan, penda bewar in Madhya Pradesh and slash and burn in Bihar.
Rudimentary system of settled farming, which includes cultivation, gathering and hunting. People in groups started settling down near a stream or river as permanent village sites and started cultivating in the same land more continuously; however the tools, crops and cropping methods were primitive.
Advanced form of primitive agriculture i.e., agriculture is considered as a way of life based on the principle of “Grow it and eat it” instead of growing crops on a commercial basis. Hence, it is referred as raising the crops only for family needs.
It is the farming comprising of crop and animal components. Field crop-grass husbandry (same field was used both for cropping and later grazing) was common. It is a stage changing from food gathering to food growing.
Advanced farming practices includes selection of crops and varieties, seed selection, green manuring with legumes, crop rotation, use of animal and crop refuse as manures, irrigation, pasture management, rearing of milch animals, bullocks, sheep and goat for wool and meat, rearing of birds by stall feeding etc.
vi. Scientific Agriculture (19th Century):
During 18th century, modern agriculture was started with crop sequence, organic recycling, introduction of exotic crops and animals, use of farm implements in agriculture etc. During 19th century, research and development (R&D) in fundamental and basic sciences were brought under applied aspects of agriculture. Agriculture took the shape of a teaching science.
Laboratories, farms, research stations, research centers, institutes for research, teaching and extension (training and demonstration) were developed. Books, journals, popular and scientific articles, literatures were introduced. New media, and audio-visual aids were developed to disseminate new research findings and information to the rural masses.
vii. Present Day Agriculture (21st Century):
Today agriculture is not merely production oriented but is becoming a business consisting of various enterprises like livestock (dairy), poultry, fishery, piggery, sericulture, apiary, plantation cropping etc. Now, a lot of developments on hydrological, mechanical, chemical, genetical and technological aspects of agriculture are in progress. Governments are apportioning a greater share of national budget for agricultural development.
Small and marginal farmers are being supplied with agricultural inputs on subsidy. Policies for preserving, processing, pricing, marketing, distributing, consuming, exporting and importing are strengthening. Agro- based small scale industries and crafts are fast developing. Need based agricultural planning; programming and execution are in progress.
Term Paper # 5. Evolution of Modern Agriculture
:
Crop production has not always been what is today. How has it changed over the years? Modern agriculture benefits from research and technological advancements. As economic permits, producers are able to implement new techniques and technologies to facilitate agricultural production. World agriculture has experienced changes that can be categorized into four fairly distinct eras, base on how production resources were utilized and managed.
Era of Resource Exploitation (Before 1900):
Modern agriculture started with the identification & exploitation of production resources. First, prime lands were identified and cleared for farming. The land was tilled and prepared for planting and crop establishment. The basic rational of this era was that soil productivity was a resource to be exploited for crop productivity. The soil nutrients were repeatedly removed without replacement.
This is he mining approach to crop production. This led to the progressive depletion of organic and inorganic soil factors and consequently reduced crop productivity. When the soil was deemed unproductive (just like an old mine), it was abandoned for a new fertile site. This was a non-sustainable production approach, requiring new lands to be exploited on a regular basis.
Era of Resource Conservation and Regeneration (Early 1900s):
In early 1900s, the producers began adopting production techniques that were less exploitative of the soil. Abandoned farm lands were eventually restored to health through only after many years in fallow. Crop rotation provided a strategy for a more efficient use of soil moisture that the previous continuous cropping system did not offer.
Legumes, through symbiosis contributed to regeneration of the soil by nitrogen fixation. Organic manures from green manuring (growing a crop for the purpose of ploughing under while still green and deliberate use of barnyard or livestock manure replenished soil fertility.
Era of Resource Substitution (Mid 1900s):
The activities of this era made the industrialization of agriculture possible. The period started roughly in mid 1900s (a little before 1950). This period saw the exploitation of mechanization that has continued to this day. Machines replaced farm draft animals. Supplemental moisture was supplied through irrigation. Chemical fertilizers were used more commonly than the bulky organic manures.
Pesticides were used more frequently to control weeds and other crop pests. Plant breeders developed more improved cultivars for farmers. Technological advancement in this era enabled producers to cultivate large tracts of land. The late 1900s saw the introduction of biotechnology and other revolutionary technologies, such as precision farming in to crop production.
Technology will continue to advance. New resources will be discovered. The future of agricultural production will probably be shaped by ability of the producer, as a manager to translate information and knowledge in to value. The use of internet and other regional and national information network will continue to make crop production information more readily accessible to producers.
Term Paper # 6. Ancient Indian Agriculture in Civilization Era
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More than one hundred years ago, Swami Vivekananda had said “So long as they forget the past, the Hindu nation remained in a state of unconsciousness and as soon as they have begun to look into their past, there is on every side a fresh manifestation of life. It is out of this past that the future has to be moulded; this past will become the future. The more therefore, the Hindus study the past, the more glorious will be their future and whosever tries to bring the past to the door of everyone is a great supporter to the nation.”
When the British introduced formal education in agriculture in India almost a century ago, they emphasized that, the “scientific” agriculture originated only in the west and the Indian Farming System had always been “unscientific”.
It is unfortunate that, curricula in agriculture even today continue to reflect the western bias. It is only during the past two decades that, the west itself has recognized that many of the so called “scientific” practices led to unsustainable agriculture and only the agricultural scientist of India turned their attention to the study of traditional, indigenous farming system.
The period of transition between the ends of Paleolithic (i.e. relating to the earliest period of the stone age characterized by rough or chipped stone implements) and the beginning of the Neolithic (i.e. relating to the latest period of the Stone Age characterized by polished stone implements) is called Mesolithic.
It began about 10000 BC (12000 years ago) and ended with the rise of agriculture and polished stone tools in the Neolithic Age from about 7500 BC to 1710 BC (i.e. about 10000 to 3700 years ago). The highlights of development of agriculture since the past 12000 years are given here by millennia in a chronological order.
Max Muller had arbitrary fixed the age of Vedas as 1500-1200 BC. However, evidence available indicates that Vedas are much older (5000-7000 years old) and the so called Harappan (Indus) civilization was a continuation of a Vedic period.
Term Paper # 7. Importance of Agriculture
:
Agriculture forms the backbone of the Indian economy and despite concerted industrialization in the last 40 years; agriculture still occupies a place of pride. Agriculture is contributing nearly 30 per cent of the national income, providing employment to about 70 per cent of the working population and accounting for a sizable share of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. It provides the food grains to feed the large population of more than one hundred crores. It is also the supplier of raw material to many industries. Thus, the very economic structure of the country rests upon agriculture.
The present role of agriculture in the Indian economy is discussed below:
1. Share of Agriculture in National Income:
Agriculture has got a prime role in Indian economy. Though the share of agriculture in national income has come down, still it has a substantial share in GDP. The contributory share of agriculture in Gross Domestic Product was 55.4% in 1950-51, 52% in 1960-61 and is reduced to 18.5% only at present. Due to rapid increase in the production of industrial goods and services in the last fifteen years the contribution of agriculture has declined. The share of the agricultural sector’s capital formation in GDP declined from 2.2% in the late 1999s to 1.9% at present.
2. Important Contribution to Employment:
Agriculture, directly or indirectly, has continued to be the main source of livelihood for the majority of the population in India. Agriculture sector, at present, provides livelihood to 65 to 70% of the total population. Dependence of working population on other fields of agriculture like livestock, fisheries, forest etc., is less. The sector provides employment to 58.4% of country’s work force and is the single largest private sector occupation.
3. Important Source of Industrial Development:
Various important industries in India find their raw material from agriculture sector – cotton and jute textile industries, sugar, vanaspati etc. are directly dependent on agriculture. Handloom, spinning oil milling, rice thrashing etc. are various small scale and cottage industries which are dependent on agriculture sector for their raw material. This highlights the importance of agriculture in industrial development of the nation.
There is a close interdependence between agriculture and industry. This is to the supply of raw materials and inputs from agriculture to industry and vice-versa; secondly, the supply of wage goods to the industrial sector; thirdly, the supply of basic consumption goods to the agricultural population; and finally, the supply of materials for the building up of economic and social overheads in the agricultural sector.
The interdependence between agriculture and industry is becoming stronger as the economy is developing. The application of science and technology in agriculture induces innovations in respect of industrial products, which are used for agricultural production.
Agricultural inputs like fertilizers, pesticides, diesel oil, electric motor, diesel engines, pump sets, agricultural tools and implements, tractors, power tillers etc., are supplied by the industry and oil, sugar, jute and cotton textiles and tobacco industries rely heavily on the agricultural sector. Even the processing industries, which are utilizing agricultural raw material, and developing fruit canning, milk products meat products etc.
4. Importance in International Trade:
India’s foreign trade is deeply associated with agriculture sector. Agriculture accounts for about 14.7% of the total export earnings. Besides, goods made with the raw material of agriculture sector also contribute about 20% in Indian exports. In other words, agriculture and its related goods contribute about 38% in total exports of the country.
5. Contribution to Purchasing Power of People:
Agriculture provides purchasing power not only to those directly engaged in it but to others also who are in the industries and services. When farmers earn more they also spend more. In the process, they create new markets and new opportunities for hundreds of blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, weavers, potters, leather workers, utensil-makers, tailors, cotton ginners, oil pressers, transporters and countless others.
Thus, there are many industries, the prosperity and employment of which are dependent upon the purchasing power of the agricultural population. Hence, it is concluded that besides purchasing food for non-agricultural workers and raw materials for consumer industries, it has created demands for a great many new industries, which, in turn, have provided high and well paid employment.
This existing role of agriculture in the Indian economy- points out the necessity for the development of Indian agriculture to the fullest extent possible as the prosperity of agriculture largely stands for the prosperity of the economy. The significance of agriculture lies in the fact that the development in agriculture is an essential condition for the development of the national economy.
6. Importance in Capital Formation:
The pace of development is largely determined by the rate at which production assets increase. Before independence, the capital formation in Indian agriculture was of a low order. During this period, agriculture suffered from constant low yield technology, inequitable land tenure system and exploitation of the rural masses. The capital formation includes land development, construction of houses etc.
Since independence, much more investment both public and private has been made in agriculture. The creation of physical assets has generally taken the form of land development, construction of irrigation facilities, roads and communication, farm buildings, agricultural machinery and equipment, warehouses, cold storages, market yard etc. This capital formation is helping not only development of agriculture but also the entire economy.
Term Paper # 8. Space Applications of Agriculture:
Agriculture has been at the top of our priorities for space applications. The road map of agricultural applications started with the first remote sensing experiment on identification of coconut root-wilt diseases in Kerala using Infrared aerial photography- way back in 1969-70.
Since then, space applications to agriculture sector have touched almost all the segments of agricultural ecosystems. These include the mapping and monitoring of major crops, soils/ degraded lands, command areas, wastelands, surface & ground water, floods & drought, and watersheds.
Agricultural statistics that provides the vital informatics base to agriculture sector originates from age-old village level Patwari system. It often moves upward with its inherent subjectivity and bias. There are hundreds of crucial decisions at different levels, which are taken purely based on this.
In order to strengthen the foundations of agricultural statistics in the country, a remote sensing based the nationwide mission called pre-harvest Crop Acreage and Production Estimation (CAPE) was launched in late 80s. Covering all the major cereals, pulses and oilseeds, CAPE provides in-season crop statistics with 90/90 accuracy at state level.
The CAPE could thus provide the scientific basis of agricultural statistics and is transitioning further to yet another institutional destination entitled Forecasting Agricultural Output using Space Agro-meteorology and Land-based Observations (FASAL) within Ministry of Agriculture itself.
Synthesizing the state-of-the-art in econometrics, agricultural meteorology and remote sensing based modeling, FASAL envisages the multiple productions forecasting of the major crops with improved accuracy to the extent of 95/95 criteria, timeliness and scope in terms of covering the whole country. The FASAL could be used to provide scientific solutions facilitating crop insurance, bridging the gaps between crop production and post-harvest technology, pricing and policy decisions.
Extensions of irrigation, genetically improved crops and use of inorganic fertilizers have been the harbingers of Green Revolution in the country. Those multi-purpose irrigation commands, which accelerated the irrigation networks in 70s & 80s, are now characterized by depleted irrigation efficiency, water logging and salinity.
At the behest of Ministry of Water Resources, remote sensing based command areas inventory has been taken up in the priority irrigation commands to enhance the water use efficiency. In the similar line, a coarse scale land degradation mapping was carried out at behest of Ministry of Agriculture. It is important to mention here that in some of critically affected areas of Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh, land degradation to the extent of village level has been mapped out.
Based on this, several land reclamation efforts-including the World Bank supported programmes, have been taken up to restore the health of soils. In coming years, with the support from Ministry of Agriculture, ISRO/DOS is planning to launch Nationwide Land Degradation Mapping Mission at the scale 1: 50,000, so as to delineate land degradation at Village level.
By virtue of the unique combinations of IRS satellites with varied resolutions and capabilities, the space segment in the country is in a position to monitor agricultural drought and recurrent floods more efficiently. Capturing the flood events with the damages to the Villages and crops has formed the scientific basis for damage assessment and thereby relief operations at various levels.
This year, for example, flood inundation maps in Orissa were generated depicting the marooned areas during the different flood waves and disseminated to the user community within hours through the Internet. Space inputs to agricultural drought monitoring are yet another aspect to target the districts and talukas on the basis of severity of drought.
Department of Space at the behest of Ministry of Rural Development has carried out nation-wide wasteland mapping on 1: 50,000 scale using the IRS data. The Wasteland Atlas of India covering the wasteland statistics of entire country has been brought out.
These maps would help in retrieving the information at village/watershed (500 ha) levels, for implementation of wastelands/watershed development programmes. The uniqueness of wasteland mapping has also been the creation of digital database with village as well as watershed boundaries.
With the hydro-geomorphological maps prepared under the National Drinking Water Mission, and subsequently to the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission, satellite remote sensing has really made a dent in reaching its potentials down the line to grassroots.
Search for groundwater, particularly in areas with consolidated and semi-consolidated rock formations, considered more difficult from the point of view of exploration as well as recharging of groundwater, is considerably aided by the use of the hydro-geomorphological maps. These maps are extensively used for locating prospective groundwater sites around problem habitations in the country, as a part of the ‘scientific-source finding’.
At the request of the Planning Commission, scientific inputs were generated from remote sensing on land use/land cover of entire country to evolve agro-climatic zonation based planning. These applications have moved further to large scale mapping across the problem regions of the country (especially the rain-fed regions), towards micro-level decision making for sustainable development.
Under remote sensing based Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development Mission (IMSD), land and water resources development plans were carried out for about 80 m ha in 175 districts of the country. Implementation of these plans in certain areas has enriched the ground water potential, increased the cropping intensity along with the net returns from the fields.
It is important to note that these experiments were conducted in the terrain of low productivity, mainly dry lands/rain-fed areas, predominantly wastelands, where the scope of doubling food production is the main issue. Emphasis is being laid in operational utilization of this vast database for ground level implementation by concerned user agencies.
The success of these experiments lies not only due to the applications of space inputs alone, but largely due to the synergistic interfaces among grass root level farmers, administrators/policy makers and multi-disciplinary scientific communities.
With operationalisation of the National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS) in the country, with DOS as the nodal agency, the space, ground and user segments have been properly tuned to respond to the challenges of sustainable crop production in the country.
The INSAT-VHRR observations on clouds, cyclone depressions, and surface radiance and monsoon parameters in the Indian Ocean have really strengthened the agro-meteorological services in the country. To disseminate the appropriate locale-specific agricultural packages, there are several programmes such as ‘Krishi Darshan’ being beamed through all the regional channels.
An operational system of public instruction has been established since 1995, using the INSAT based Training and Development Communication Channel (TDCC) for disseminating the improved agricultural practices, training primary school teachers, Panchayat Raj, elected representatives, Anganwadi workers, wasteland development functionaries etc.
The Jhabua Development Communication Project (JDCP), undertaken by ISRO in Jhabua district of MP, has been providing communication support to the developmental activities and also interactive training to the development functionaries, besides empowering the poor and marginalized tribal.
A pilot project sponsored by the Planning Commission, a single window information service provider concept – called Agro-climatic Planning and Information Bank (APIB) has been developed for the farmers of drought prone areas of Karnataka. The APIB is an effort to empower the farmers and reduce their vulnerability to crop failures.
Moving to the farmer’s cooperatives, ISRO has taken up jointly with IFFCO – a major initiative on developing remote sensing and GIS based decision support system for fertilizer movements in the priority areas. Finally, space applications over last three decades in agriculture have made this sector information rich and have addressed the various issues encompassing the different sectors of agriculture.