Ministry of Agriculture leverages space technology to enhance crop forecasting, drought monitoring, and yield estimation

In a major stride toward modernizing Indian agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare is harnessing space technology to support key initiatives such as crop production forecasting, drought monitoring, and yield estimation under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).

One of the core initiatives utilizing space-based solutions is the FASAL project (Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land-based observations). Through FASAL, the Ministry is conducting crop production forecasts for major crops including rice, wheat, tur, rapeseed & mustard, rabi jowar, cotton, jute, sugarcane, soybean, lentil, and gram.

To enhance drought monitoring, a dedicated Geoportal has been developed in collaboration with the Space Applications Centre (SAC), ISRO, Ahmedabad. This portal integrates multiple drought indicators, such as rainfall patterns, soil moisture levels, remote sensing-based crop conditions, and reservoir storage data, enabling informed policy and response planning.

Under PMFBY, space technology is being actively employed for:

• Smart sampling of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs),

• Yield estimation using remote sensing,

• Dispute resolution for area and yield assessments.

In addition, the Ministry has developed Krishi-DSS (Krishi Decision Support System) — a cloud-based geo-spatial platform that leverages satellite data to empower stakeholders with critical information for agricultural decision-making. The platform hosts datasets such as weather conditions, soil health layers, satellite imagery, water availability, and ground-level field data, along with decision-support modules and algorithms.

Between 2019 and 2023, the Ministry conducted pilot studies engaging government and private agencies to explore the use of space and digital technologies for yield estimation. These pilots employed satellite imagery, UAVs (drones), simulation models, and AI/ML techniques to generate accurate yield estimates at the Gram Panchayat (GP) level.

Building on these findings, the YESTECH (Yield Estimation System using Technology) initiative was launched under PMFBY. From Kharif 2023, technology-driven GP-level yield estimation was rolled out for paddy and wheat, followed by soybean in Kharif 2024. This aims to ensure more timely and transparent claim settlements for farmers.

The information was shared by Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Ramnath Thakur, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on 1 August 2025.