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In a bid to provide milk producers information on fodder cultivation and production estimates, Amul has set up a satellite remote sensing centre in Anand which would cover Kaira, Anand and Mahisagar districts. Initially, five districts of Central and North Gujarat will be covered for fodder crop estimation.
In 2017, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) and ISRO had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to this effect. Under the agreement, the Amul Remote Sensing Center will work towards estimation of fodder crops in Kaira, Anand, Mahisagar districts. A similar centre of Banas Dairy would work in Banaskantha and Patan districts of Gujarat.
The centre would help milk producers know when to initiate cultivation of fodder crop by using satellite images. The first remote sensing centre for estimation of fodder crops in Kaira and Anand districts was opened at Amul Dairy in Anand on Saturday by Tapan Misra, Director, SAC, ISRO in the presence of Ramsinh Parmar, Chairman, GCMMF and Amul Dairy, and R. S. Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF.
The technology can also be utilised in the dairy sector for decision support in drought management. It would gradually be scaled up to all the districts of Gujarat through the respective milk unions of the GCMMF. This is an innovative way to help milk producers know when to initiate cultivation of fodder crop by use of satellite images.
It would help farmers estimate fodder production, plan to grow/ intensify production and improve availability, leading to increase in milk production and economic benefit. This would pave a new era in fodder crop management using satellite data, Amul said in a statement.
Fodder crop estimation would act as a decision-making tool for monitoring national-level projects such as the Accelerated Fodder Development Program (AFDP) , the National Livestock Mission (NLM), NDP-phase 1, and other watershed projects.
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