TNAU gets German funds, tech for crop monitoring project

COIMBATORE:  Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) Vice Chancellor V Geethalakshmi said on Wednesday that the university is working on a project to improve the effectiveness of crop insurance. She said the project will be completed in the next three years.

Addressing the press, she said German government is providing funds and technological support for the project ‘Innovative Climate Risk Insurance’. The aim of the project is to develop real-time crop status using remote sensing technology and satellite images, so that the details of each farmer, land holding, source of water and crops cultivated will be collected to create a database.

“Presently, the harvest of crops in a village is compared with the average of the block to determine compensation payout under the insurance scheme. Once, this project is implemented, the government will be able to determine crop loss for each farmer,” she said.

“After this project is completed, farmers will be suggested alternative crops suited for each areas to help them escape from recurring crop losses. The suggested crops will be water-efficient ones. Promotion of mechanization in farming is also a part of the project,” she said.

She said the university received `6 crore worth of German funds, for the project and on pilot basis, data has been collected from 200 farmers in Tiruvarur and Perambalur.