Crop production forecasts using satellite remote sensing data has been conceptualised at Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad in early eighties under Crop Production Forecasting (CPF) project. Its success led to the CAPE (Crop Acreage and Production Estimation) project for Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) towards forecasting of production of crops in the major growing regions. In order to enhance the scope of this project, the Forecasting Agricultural Output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land based Observations (FASAL) programme was conceptualised by developing methodology for multiple in-season forecasts of crops at national scale. A centre named Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC) was established by MoA&FW in New Delhi in April 2012 which operationally uses space-based observations for national level pre-harvest multiple crop production forecasts of nine field crops.

Geospatial technology also provides input for various aspects of horticulture development, including research, expansion, post-harvest management etc. A project called CHAMAN (Coordinated Horticulture Assessment and Management using geoinfromatics) was initiated for better horticulture inventory and management using remote sensing, GIS and collateral field data.

India is one of the important marine fish producing countries. Conventionally, for profitable fish catch, fishermen have to spend a lot of time scouting the region using up precious fuel and time as the fish resources are affected by spatial and temporal nature of various environmental factors like temperature, availability of food, currents, wind etc. Due to limited visibility, fishing vessels are unable to see the dynamic nature of environmental parameters on a larger scale that affect the distribution of fish resources. However, satellite remote sensing offers a synoptic view of the ocean in space and time and can provide information needed to assess and locate the probable areas of fish aggregation. In view of this, Space Applications Centre (SAC) initiated and developed an approach to identify and forecast Potential Fishing Zones (PFZ) using remote sensing technique and transferred the technology to Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) for operational execution.

Tropical cyclones are one of the most destructive meteorological hazards that form in the warm oceans and affect the surrounding countries by causing huge loss to life and property. Inputs from satellite-based observations are efficient to monitor these cyclonic activities from genesis to dissipation.