The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Stress on doubling of agricultural production

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Stress on doubling of agricultural production

Average farm output in India is 1.7 tonnes per hectare against world’s 2.6 tonnes, says former ISRO chief

Solar energy can be harnessed by using large photovoltaic arrays in the geostationary orbit
Abundant Helium 3 on the moon can be used to meet the energy requirements on the earth

- Photo: H. Satish

EXPERT SPEAK: Former ISRO chairman U. R. Rao at the C. D. Deshmukh Memorial Lecture on Space Technology for Socio Economic Development in Hyderabad on Friday.

HYDERABAD: Former ISRO Chairman U.R. Rao on Friday called for doubling the country’s average agricultural production from 1.7 tonnes per hectare on a sustainable basis to meet the growing demands of population.

Delivering the ninth Dr. C. D. Deshmukh Memorial Lecture on ‘Space technology for socio-economic development’, organised by the Council for Social Development here, he said an ‘evergreen revolution’ had to be initiated. He pointed out that the country’s agricultural productivity continued to be low, as against the world average of 2.6 tonnes per hectare, leave alone world’s highest of five tonnes per hectare. The best technology needed to be used for implementing ‘evergreen revolution’.

He said by combining vital inputs from space with biotechnological advances and appropriate practices, it was possible to evolve site-specific integrated development strategies for doubling foodgrain production.

Remote sensing

Remote-sensing had proved to be very valuable for continuous monitoring of soil characteristics, land use practices, agricultural crop inventory and vegetation cover, among others. Tracing the space programme’s success, he said its expenditure in four decades was a modest $ 10 billion, just about half of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s annual budget.

On the use of space technology in the coming decades, Prof. Rao mentioned the possibility of harnessing clean solar energy from the space using large photovoltaic arrays in the geostationary orbit. Similarly, exploitation of abundant availability of helium 3 on the moon, which could be used to meet the energy requirements on the earth using thermo-nuclear reactions, was also being explored.

Mineral resources

With most major mineral resources estimated to last about 200 years, he referred to the promise of exploration and exploitation of other planetary resources, particularly the moon and Mars. However, it would depend on drastically reducing the cost of space transportation by a factor of 50 or even 100 from $ 20,000 a kg. P. M. Bhargava, founder-director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, spoke.

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