Lok Sabha Question No. 1860 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-02-11
Subject: Forecasting of Crop Production by ISRO
Ministry: SPACE
Asked by: Shri Avimanyu Sethi, Shri Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Shri Shashank Mani, Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Shri Rajkumar Chahar, Shri P P Chaudhary, Shri Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, Smt. Anita Nagarsingh Chouhan, Dr. Vinod Kumar Bind

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA DEPARTMENT OF SPACE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1860 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2026 FORECASTING OF CROP PRODUCTION BY ISRO

## 1860.  SHRI P P CHAUDHARY:

SHRI VISHWESHWAR HEDGE KAGERI:

SMT. ANITA NAGARSINGH CHOUHAN:

DR. VINOD KUMAR BIND:

SHRI AVIMANYU SETHI:

SHRI PRATAP CHANDRA SARANGI:

SHRI SHASHANK MANI:

SHRI RAJIV PRATAP RUDY:

SHRI RAJKUMAR CHAHAR:

Will the PRIME MINISTER be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Indian  Space  Research  Organisation  (ISRO)  has developed  and  operationalised  satellite-based  methodologies for forecasting crop acreage, yield and production;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the major programmes and platforms  used  for  this  purpose  including  the  use  of  remote sensing and geospatial analytics;
- (c) the  details  of  the  crops  and  regions  currently  covered  under such forecasting systems;
- (d) the details of the frequency at which crop production estimates are generated during an agricultural season; and
- (e) whether any crop production estimates have been generated for the State of Rajasthan, particularly for the cultivated land falling under Pali Lok Sabha Constituency and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES & PENSIONS AND IN THE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE (DR. JITENDRA SINGH):

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- (a) ISRO  has  developed  satellite-based  methodologies  for  crop acreage  and  production  forecasting  and  are  operationalized through Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC) of Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW).
- (b) MNCFC,  is  regularly  generating  forecast  of  11  field  crops  at district  level  for  the  whole  country.  Indian  Remote  sensing satellite data is used along with ground truth data for crop area estimation.  This  is  done  under  the  Forecasting  Agricultural output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land-based observations  (FASAL)  program  of  MoA&FW.    Crop  cutting experiments  are  done  to  develop  &  validate  remote  sensing based semi-physical crop yield models for production estimation.  Space  technology  based  crop  yield  estimation  is also  implemented  by  MoA  &FW  under  the  YESTECH  (Yield Estimation System Based on Technology) initiative for PMFBY.

(c)  The crops covered under the FASAL programme are rice, wheat, mustard, cotton, maize, soyabean,  groundnut, rabi pulses, sugarcane, jute, arhar. These cover more than 90% of the major crop growing areas in a state. (d) The single-time acreage and forecasts are provided for selected crops in every crop season namely Kharif and Rabi. (e) For Rajasthan, Remote sensing based district wise acreage and production estimate for wheat and mustard are given. ISRO/DOS has not carried out any crop production estimation for Pali Lok Sabha Constituency.

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