The Hindu : National : Natural resources repository planned, says ISRO chairman

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Saturday, Sep 22, 2007
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Natural resources repository planned, says ISRO chairman

“Village Information Centres benefiting a million people”
Food security will be the biggest problem : U.R. Rao

HYDERABAD: As part of ensuring optimal utilisation of natural resources for sustainable agriculture, a National Resources Census is planned every five years. The ultimate aim is to establish Natural Resources Repository (NRR).

This was stated by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman, G. Madhavan Nair, while inaugurating the two-day, 17th UN/International Astronautical Federation (IAF) workshop on ‘Space Technology for Sustainable Development Towards Food Security’ at the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) on Friday.

Information on seven natural resources on a 1:50,000 scale was generated in a prototype study for 12 typical districts/talukas in the country. Thus, NRR has been conceptualised to create and maintain a systematic archive of digital spatial data to address societal needs, Mr. Nair added.

He said studies were on to utilise space technology for precision agriculture for optimising the supply of external inputs and reduce the cost of cultivation, while aiming to maximise the returns. This was being done by not only accounting for the variability at the micro-level but also by considering the heterogeneity of agro-ecological regions, cropping systems, soil and weather. More than 250 Village Resources Information Centres (VRCs) set up across the country were already benefiting over a million people on a day-to-day basis, he said. Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) were planned in areas of sparse coverage and for real time weather data .

“The indigenously-developed AWS is capable of recording weather data on a continuous basis and transmitted through the INSAT system for providing improved agro-advisory services”, he added. He pointed out that over-exploitation of natural resources, environmental degradation, climate change and natural disasters are major threats to food security. About 57 per cent of the total geographical area in the country were suffering from various “degradational hazards.’ It is estimated that more than 5000 million tonnes of precious fertile top soil that sustains agriculture is being eroded every year.

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