Operationalizing

Precision Farming in
India

Authors:
Ashish Mishra, P. Chidambara Raj, and D. Balaji
College of Engineering, Guindy
Anna University.
Contents
⇨ Objectives
⇨ Precision Farming
⇨ Components of Prec
⇨ Problems in Indian A
⇨ Overview
⇨ Feasibility Analysis
⇨ Suggestions for Imp
⇨ Conclusion
 Objectives

⇨ Explain the feasibility of precision

farming technology with emphasis on
seed spacing tillage, etc.
⇨ Set up a DGPS network all around the
country and achieving few centimeters
accuracy for the purpose of Site-Specific
Management (SSM) in Precision Farming
⇨ Analyse the cost and benefit in terms of
Indian farmer’s income-expenditure

Contents
Precision Farming

Care for each plant

⇨ The term Precision Farming

means the application of
technologies and principles to
manage spatial and temporal
variability associated with all
aspects of agricultural production
(Pierce and Nowak, 1999)

Contents
 Components of Precision
Farming
⇨ Remote Sensing
⇨ Geographic Information
System (GIS)
⇨ Differential Global
Positioning System
(DGPS)
⇨ Variable Rate Applicator

Contents
Problems in Indian Agriculture

⇨ Small land holdings

⇨ Heterogeneity of cropping systems
and market imperfections
⇨ Lack of technical expertise
knowledge and technology (India
spends only 0.3% of its
agricultural GDP in Research and
Development )

Contents
 Overview
⇨ Seed spacing
The yield is maximum when care is taken to
adequately space them to enable each
plant the optimum requisites for its growth,
namely the soil nutrients, water, sunlight
and protection against pest infestation.

⇨ DGPS Network
1. Enable the farmers to get an accuracy of
few centimeters in the various unit
processes involved in Precision Farming
2. DGPS network would cater to the needs of
multitude of applications of which Precision
Farming is one.

Contents
 Feasibility Analysis
Area of India = 329 million hectares
Area covered by one reference station of DGPS = 200 km radius
Area of GPS (circular area, PI = 3.14) = PI * (200) 2 sq km
= 125600 sq km
= 12.56 million hectares
Total no. of GPS reference stations required for the country = 329/12.56 =
26
Cost of a single DGPS = Rs. 40 lakhs
Total cost of the entire infrastructure= Rs. 10.4 crores
Contribution of Agriculture to GDP of India for 2000 - 01 = Rs. 430088
crores
Amount spent for R&D = 0.3% of GDP = Rs. 1290.264 crores
Percentage of amount required from R&D = (10.4 / 1290.264 ) * 100
= 0.81%

Contents
 Suggestions for
Implementation
⇨ Creation of
Multidisciplinary teams
of scientists
⇨ Formation of farmer’s
co-operatives
⇨ Government legislation
restraining
indiscriminate
practices
⇨ Creation of awareness
among farmers, land
owners, etc.
Contents
 Conclusion
⇨ As the feasibility
shows only 0.81% of
R&D would be used
for the first stage of
Precision Farming and
so it will take
“Indian
agriculture into
space age”.

Contents