HYDERABAD: The latest technology adopted by the irrigation department with the help of National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) has come in handy to the state government on several counts. The government is now able to get accurate figures of cropped area and the production. With the availability of details, the marketing department is gearing itself for the storage and marketing of agricultural produce.
The irrigation department signed an MoU with NRSA in 2016 for mapping all the irrigation projects and tanks in the state. The year-long project became operational in the last crop season and the department was fully equipped with the details. “We have mapped all the major and minor irrigation projects in the state. The project-wise maps being provided by NRSA is helping us get the total cropped area under a particular project, the water used by farmers and the variety of crops sown,” an official of irrigation department said. The NRSA was also giving the irrigation department data on agricultural production under the projects. “With the accurate production details now, the marketing department is making perfect planning for storage and marketing of the produce,” official sources said.
Recently, when the statistical department was about to print its annual report, irrigation department officials found that their draft was not accurate and there was a vast deviation of actual figures pertaining to cropping area and production. “We immediately wanted the statistical department to stop publishing the books. Later, we provided them the details which we took from NRSA,” the sources explained.
Normally, the local revenue staff would collect the cropped area details. But, due to the water cess, they would not show the full details fearing that they would not collect the actual water cess amounts from farmers. “Now, the state government has cancelled the water cess and we expect the details collected by revenue officials and the information got through NRSA will not have much deviation in future,” the sources said. The NRSA mapped Mission Kakatiya tanks and other minor water bodies in addition to major and medium projects. With the help of NRSA, the project-wise maps of all projects with cropped area details are available with the Telangana Water Resources Information System (TWRIS).