To ensure timely settlements of claims under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has approved the proposal of the Department of Agriculture for flying drones over 100 districts growing rice & wheat, said Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.

Tomar tweeted, "To ensure timely settlements of claims under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has approved the proposal of Department of Agriculture for flying the drone over 100 districts growing rice & wheat".

He added that "This is the first remote sensing technology based largest pilot study in the country so far, conducted for crop yield estimation".

Apart from drone-based images, High Spatial Resolution Satellite data, Biophysical Models, Smart Sampling, CropSnap, IoT, etc. are also being used in this large-scale pilot study.

Several Remote Sensing data-driven pilot studies have been conducted under PMFBY across the country to determine the optimum number of Crop Cutting Experiments for accurate crop yield loss at insurance unit, Smart Sampling Technique & Rationalization of CCE & direct yield estimation.

"This Department had engaged 13 International/National/ Private agencies for conducting pilot studies to develop technology-driven approaches for direct yield estimation at Gram Panchayat level for Kharif 2019 & Rabi 2019-20,"

The agencies had conducted studies in 64 districts of 15 States for nine crops for Kharif 2019 with the help of Satellite, UAV, Biophysical Models, Smart Sampling & other Advanced Statistics technologies for crop yield estimation.

The pilot studies were continued in Rabi 2019-20 in Rabi Rice and Wheat growing districts for validation of crop yield results obtained in Kharif 2019, he added.

Tomar said, "In view of outstanding results of pilot studies, the Expert Committee has recommended that there is a large scope of use of technology under PMFBY for GP level yield estimation".

Based on advanced technology used by the agencies & modeling accuracies, Seven Agencies (AMNEX, AGROTECH, CROPIN, ICRISAT, NIRUTHI, RMSI, WRMS) have been selected for large scale pilot studies for Kharif 2019 & Rabi 2019-20, the Union Agriculture Minister added.

In a tweet, Tomar said that "Drone images are crucial input parameters for crop yield estimation at GP level developed by the agencies".

"The use of UAV data in the scheme will bring a new dimension to ensure timely settlement of claims in the scheme as well as for crop area estimation, losses due to localized calamities & to resolve yield dispute between different stakeholders under the scheme," he added.

The use of high spatial resolution UAV data may also be explored in other agriculture-related schemes in India, Tomar said.

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