Maharashtra govt eyes to make use of satellites for crop damage assessment and payout to farmers

Eknath Shinde

The Maharashtra government is planning to make use of satellites to carry out assessment of damage to crops occurring due to various reasons, and link the process to payment of compensation to farmers for faster results, an official said on Thursday.

The state administration held a presentation on Wednesday on this topic before state Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who asked officials to follow up on the proposal.

Speaking about the plan during a function here in Mumbai, Fadnavis said, "Satellite-based crop damage assessment and compensation will be a game changer in this sector. The satellite images will decide the intensity of crop damage and go on to make compensatory payment to farmers."

"The presentation I attended yesterday here was about this proposal. There were some discrepancies and technical errors in the plan, which I have asked them to get fixed," he said.

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This system will operate on autopilot mode, which means it will have minimum human intervention, he added.

As per the present system, the government has to issue a written order, asking revenue officials to physically visit the affected farms, carry out a survey and then submit a damage assessment report. The reports are moved from tehsil to district to the state level, and depending upon the importance of the crop and its production cost, the government announces monetary compensation.

"If satellites are used for assessment and payment of compensation to farmers, it will save several hours of the government staff and help in speedy disbursement of funds to farmers," an official from state revenue department said.

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