Raipur — In an effort to sharpen the precision of this year’s kharif crop assessment, the Chhattisgarh government is deploying small unmanned aerial vehicles to complement the traditional girdawari exercise slated for completion in October. The new workflow pairs high‑resolution drone imagery with field checks conducted by revenue officials.
Integrating aerial maps with field observations
UAVs are being flown over key agricultural blocks to capture detailed photographs of field boundaries, crop‑type mosaics and cultivated extents. The raw images are processed into a geospatial ledger that tags every parcel with its respective crop.
Concurrently, revenue teams visit farms to verify the drone‑derived records. Any inconsistency between the digital map and the on‑site reality is flagged for further investigation.
Real‑time oversight of the girdawari operation
Senior officials monitor the survey’s progress closely, reviewing reports from field crews in near‑real time. When a mismatch emerges — for example, a crop listed in official registers that is absent on the ground — the responsible officers must account for the discrepancy.
This two‑tiered verification system is intended to prune errors from the state’s crop database and deliver a more trustworthy snapshot of agricultural output.
Detecting illicit opium and cannabis cultivation
The drone sweep is not limited to legal kharif crops. Authorities are also scanning for signs of illegal opium and cannabis farms. Revenue officers coordinate with police and other agencies; if aerial footage or a site visit suggests suspicious planting, a targeted ground inspection is launched before any enforcement action.
Officials contend that aerial mapping can quickly expose hard‑to‑reach pockets, enabling a faster response to potential illegal farms.
Scale of the sowing ambition
Chhattisgarh has set an aggressive target of sowing kharif crops on 48.69 lakh hectares this season. Satellite‑aided estimates as of 22 September indicated that cultivation already covered 48.44 lakh hectares.
Rice remains the dominant kharif crop, while maize, kodo, kutki, arhar, moong, groundnut and ramtil also feature prominently across the state’s landscape.
The final girdawari round in October is expected to lock in the exact area under each crop.
Why precision matters for farmers
Accurate crop data underpins a suite of government programmes—crop‑insurance payouts, disaster relief, compensation and other farmer‑centric schemes. When the type of crop and its exact cultivated area are reliably recorded, authorities can pinpoint eligible beneficiaries and channel assistance more efficiently.
By marrying drone technology with traditional field checks, the administration aims to build a robust, transparent crop database that ensures public support reaches the right hands.
