Raipur — The Chhattisgarh government has turned to unmanned aerial vehicles to sharpen the precision of this year’s kharif crop assessment. The conventional girdawari exercise, due to wrap up in October, will now be bolstered by drone‑generated maps that are cross‑checked by revenue officers on the field.
Integrating drone imagery with field verification
Light‑weight UAVs are being piloted over major agricultural belts, capturing centimetre‑level photographs of plot borders, crop patterns and cultivated area. These snapshots are transformed into a georeferenced ledger that marks the exact location of every crop type.
At the same time, revenue teams conduct farm visits to validate the aerial records. Any inconsistency between the drone‑derived data and the on‑site observation is flagged for deeper investigation.
Real‑time oversight of the girdawari process
Senior officials are monitoring the survey’s progress in near‑real time, reviewing daily reports from the field crews. When a mismatch appears—such as a crop entry in official registers that does not correspond with what is actually grown—the responsible officers must provide an explanation.
This two‑pronged strategy is intended to prune errors from the state’s crop database and deliver a more credible picture of agricultural output.
Detecting illicit opium and cannabis cultivation
The aerial sweep is not confined 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 drone footage or a field visit hints at suspicious planting, a focused ground inspection follows before any enforcement action is taken.
Officials contend that high‑resolution mapping can quickly expose hard‑to‑reach pockets, enabling a faster response to potential illegal cultivation.
Scale of the sowing target
Chhattisgarh has set an aggressive target of sowing kharif crops on 48.69 lakh hectares this season. Satellite‑assisted estimates as of 22 September indicated that cultivation had already reached 48.44 lakh hectares.
Rice continues to dominate the kharif basket, while maize, kodo, kutki, arhar, moong, groundnut and ramtil also occupy substantial acreage.
The final girdawari round in October is expected to lock in the precise area under each crop.
Why precise records matter for farmers
Accurate crop statistics underpin a host of government schemes—crop‑insurance payouts, disaster relief, compensation and other farmer‑centric programmes. When the crop type and 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.
