Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar on Friday indicated that the country’s agriculture sector would increasingly reap the benefits of space technology in the coming years through various upcoming projects, including the Indo-US NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite.
Earth observation satellite NISAR is slated to be launched in 2020-21.
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Inaugurating the 50th Foundation Day celebrations of the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bengaluru here, Mr. Kiran Kumar said NISAR would provide information about a place more frequently than older satellites orbiting the Earth at present. For instance, if the present satellites take 23 to 25 days to re-visit a particular spot and give the next round of information about it, NISAR would provide the repeat information in two to five days.
Such a higher frequency of getting periodical information would benefit many sectors apart from farming, he noted.
Among the objectives of NISAR are estimation of soil moisture, agriculture and forest biomass and estimation of glaciers, snow and possibility of landslides, he said.
Referring to the ongoing research into space technology that could help agriculture, he said “hyper spectral” studies were being undertaken to identify yellow rust disease in wheat crop through remote sensing.
Similarly, research was going on related to the use of microwave remote sensing. Mr. Kiran Kumar felt that the ongoing research regarding application of space technology for agricultural development was not enough. He called upon agricultural scientists to join hands with ISRO.
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