International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology (IJEAB) Vol-1, Issue-4, Nov-Dec- 2016

http://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijeab/1.4.42 ISSN: 2456-1878

Application of Remote Sensing in Agriculture &

Animal Husbandry, ICT Programmes in
Livestock Development Problems & Prospect of
ICT in Livestock Development
S. Senapati, A. Paikaray, B.C. Das, P. Swain

Department of Veterinary & Animal Husbandry Extension, Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology, Bhubaneswar-
751003, Odisha, India

Abstract— Remote sensing technology has rapidly Remote Sensing is a technical process of procuring
expanded for the development of diffident sectors including information about distant objects by technological means
agriculture and allied fields. The remote sensing techniques without any physical contact. The term remote sensing was
will continue to be very important factor in the improvement first used in 1960. The scientific means include various
of present system of acquiring agricultural data. The sensors. The remote sensing is based on the fact that every
remote sensing provides various platforms for agricultural object on the earth surface reflects a specific wavelength
and animal husbandry survey. The importance of remote characteristic of the reflecting surface and is called
sensing applications to agricultural and allied sectors spectral signature of the object. This reflectance from each
involve land use pattern, crop production crop yield object depends on the wavelength of incident radiation,
determination, livestock population, sex of animal, types of molecular structure of the object and its surface conditions
farm and distribution of animals. ICTs are emerging as an Besides this, every object on the earth’s surface has finite
important tool for the development of societies and have temperature, greater than absolute zero and therefore
driving forces in the economics world-wide. ICTs are no radiates energy according Stefan Boltzmann’s law. Remote
more confined to assist high –end research and sensing is mainly based on measuring electromagnetic
development, the new technologies have made significant energy. (Ghadekar, 2001)
improvements in the life styles and the efficiency levels of
agriculture and animal husbandry sectors of the economy.
Keywords— Remote Sensing, Geographical Information
System (GIS), Information and Communication
Technology (ICT),Web-GIS based Livestock Information
Management System (WGLIMS), LANDSAT.

I. INTRODUCTION
Beyond the primitive method of remote sensing technology,
our earliest ancestors used to standing on a high mountains Fig.1: Principle of remote sensing model, Source: CRISP
or tree to view the landscape of the area. The modern
discipline arose with the development of flight. The Remote sensing has now become an import tool for
balloonist mode photographs of cities from their balloons. procuring information, surveillance, explorations,
The first tactical use was during the civil war. The management, inventory in various fields like agriculture,
introduction of online web services for easy access to animal husbandry, forestry etc. It has further enabled
remote sensing data in the 21st century mainly low/medium- monitoring of environment and thereby helping in
resolution images, like Google Earth, has made remote conservation. In the last four decades it has grown as a
sensing more familiar to the every one and has popularized major tool for collecting information on almost every aspect
the science. on the earth. On the basis of availability of very high spatial
Remote Sensing resolution satellites in the recent years, the applications

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International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology (IJEAB) Vol-1, Issue-4, Nov-Dec- 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijeab/1.4.42 ISSN: 2456-1878
have multiplied. In India remote sensing has been used for enables to monitor the crop repetitively. The condition of
various applications during the last four decades and has crop is mainly influenced by the following types of stress
contributed significantly towards development. and disturbances.
a. Moisture Stress
Application on Agriculture b. Nutrient stress
Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy and the c. Flooding
pivotal sector for ensuring food security. Timely availability d. Salinity
of information on agriculture is vital for taking informed e. Disease and pest attack etc.
decisions on food security issues. India is one of the few Remote sensing also employed in determining land use
countries in the world that uses space technology and land- patterns, flood prone area mapping, monitoring
based observations for generating regular updates on crop desertification, land use mapping, soil mapping. Thus the
production statistics and providing inputs to achieve remote sensing plays important role in agriculture for
sustainable agriculture. various objects and processes.
Crop production database is used to know how many acres GIS in Agriculture
of land have been cultivated, where cultivation already GIS and Remote Sensing have emerged as very significant
covered and where need to be done, i.e. area and production information technology tools to boost the overall efficiency
of different crops can be assed with help of remote sensing of agricultural sector. Various Governmental and semi-
and GIS applications. Crop distribution help in modeling of Governmental agencies are involved in research and
climatic and other environmental changes and their effects development activities and comprehensive database for
on agriculture. agricultural sector can ensure greater reliability of estimates
Identification of various crops from remote sensing and forecasting. This in turn can be used for effective
techniques can be done. The electromagnetic energy agricultural planning and broad policy making.
receipts from various species of crops will definitely vary. Efforts to improve and harness latest remote sensing and
Qualitative evaluation of computer processed LANDSAT information technology techniques to capture, collate, add
data shows that major crops species can be identified. Such value and disseminate data into appropriate destinations will
experiment to identify groundnut and paddy fields were be helpful for managing risk and in accelerating the growth
carried out in Andhra Pradesh (MANAGE, 2008)) process of agricultural sector.(Varshneya and Pillai, 2003)
Geospatial analysis, the study of various geographic
features, different weather conditions and the relationships
that exist among these can be applied to many areas of the
agricultural industry. By better understanding how features
within the landscape interact, decision makers can optimize
operational efficiency and improve economic returns. GIS
is becoming fully integrated and widely accepted for
helping government agencies to manage programs that
support farmers and protect the environment. GIS can be
used effectively for
a. Cropping pattern monitoring
b. Agricultural Planning and market analysis
c. Soil Management
Fig.2: Agricultural parameters estimated through remote
d. Yield modeling and estimation
sensing

After identifying crop species, by superimposing Application on Animal Husbandry

India primarily an agricultural economy country. The
geographical boundary of a region, estimation of acreage
population of rural India depends on livestock like Dairy
under each type of class is obtained. Crop acreage
Cattles, Poultries, Small animal as goat etc. The livestock
estimation by remote sensing technique and accounts
population of India is huge and animals as a whole play an
available from Bureaus of Economics has shown good
important role in the agricultural economy even though they
agreement. For better performance and management,
often receive inadequate nourishment. The objective of
monitoring of the crops at frequent intervals during crop
animal husbandry programme is to increase the supply of
growing season is required. Space based remote sensing

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International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology (IJEAB) Vol-1, Issue-4, Nov-Dec- 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijeab/1.4.42 ISSN: 2456-1878
milk, meat and eggs, a greater consumption of which is very Right approach is needed to improve the information
essential in order to balance the present customary diets and systems through the introduction and use of active
to provide efficient bullock power for agricultural surveillance for the rapid, inexpensive collection of accurate
operations in every part of the country. The quality of the animal health data, and the use of GIS to improve data
cattle is thus of critical importance to the rural economy. management and incorporate the spatial component of their
There are also certain animal products such as wool, hair, distribution. The advantages of spatial domain are location
hides and skins etc., the efficient utilization of which as studies / map based studies of livestock enables the planners
industrial raw materials has a growing economic to effectively manage the livestock resources in the country.
significance. Animal husbandry programme continues to GIS in Animal Husbandry
encounter serious practical difficulties, for which the size GIS plays an important role in animal husbandry. They are
and the nature of the problem and its essential features also carrying the responsibilities like training the farmers
needs to be understood. Livestock Management involves and professionals, strengthening of semen stations,
the overall productivity, management, improvement and Organization of infertility camps, to deliver breeding inputs
planning for livestock resources for each and every region at farmer’s door steps. Until recently significant efforts are
of the country. put in the direction of livestock survey and data generation
Livestock play an important role in developing countries. by various agencies. These data should be given a Geo-
The control of livestock diseases depends on a clear informatics approach / direction, which will result in
understanding of the diseases present, their distribution and deriving lotof information from the existing surveyed data.
impact. Livestock Management in any country involves Development & implementation of Web-GIS based
welfare and sustainable development of livestock to build a Livestock Information Management System (WGLIMS) is
progressively modern and dynamic livestock-linked very much essential to collect, analyze, model, visualize and
agricultural economy for attaining self-sufficiency and disseminate data available on livestock in India. Use of GIS
import substitution, gaining export competitiveness, can handle and analyze spatially referenced data and offers
dispersed development to reduce regional imbalance. There tremendous potential in storing voluminous spatial and non-
were about 343 millions of cattle in our country during the spatial data. By employing GIS, GPS and remote sensing
year 1965-66. Out of these 176 million were sheep, 64 technologies advantages can be sought not only in time and
million were goats and the rest were others. In 2001 there costs, but also in a more comprehensive and integrated
were an estimated 219.6 million head of cattle, representing treatment for affected areas and their restoration, in a
about 15% of the world's total and more than in any other mainly agrarian economy of developing country like India.
country. There are eight breeds of buffalo, 26 cattle breeds, (Sajeevanet. al., 2012)
and numerous crossbreeds. The bovine inventory in 2001
also included 94.1 million buffalo. Other livestock in 2001
included 123.5 million goats, 58.2 million sheep, 17.5
million hogs, 900,000 camels, 750,000 Ass, 800,000 horses,
and 735 million chickens. Bullocks (steers) and water
buffalo are important draft animals. (Ranad and Mishra,
2015)
Dairy farming in India is undertaken on so many of small
farms, where only average of three milk animals are raised
on less than a hectare (2.5 acres), and yields consist of two
to three liters of milk daily. To improve milk production, a
dairy development program was begun in 1978 to build up
the milch herd to 150 million crossbred cows. Milk output
in 2001 from over 35 million dairy cows was estimated at
37.1 million tons, second in the world. Egg production in Fig.3: Web GIS based Livestock Information Management
2001 was 1,906,000 tons. The production of cattle and System model
buffalo hides and goat and sheepskins is a major industry.
About 53,700 tons of wool was produced in 2001. Silk ICT Programmes in Livestock Development
production that year amounted to 15,000 tons, second Using GIS complete livestock geo-database can be created.
highest after China. (Ranad and Mishra, 2015) This can be very helpful in getting information about

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International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology (IJEAB) Vol-1, Issue-4, Nov-Dec- 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijeab/1.4.42 ISSN: 2456-1878
number of bulls, cows, poultry birds, buffaloes, milch programme can be undertaken to increase the
animals in any village at a click of a button. Also Geo- number.
database can be created for sheep breading farms for Exotic c. Distribution of future centers can be decided
/ Local / Cross Breed sheep within states, Locations of d. All the data related to each centers such as –
semen stations & frozen semen laboratories. Locations Responsible authority, number and types of animals
convenient to sheep rearing, Locations where cross which are artificially inseminated, efficiency of
breeding has been undertaken for upgradation of local sheep center etc can be integrated with spatial location.
can be identified. Livestock Insurance Scheme is being
implemented by Central Government in various states. Problems of ICT in Livestock development
Progress and extent of implementation can be integrated Several studies have analyzed the factors affecting the
over spatial features using GIS. adoption of modern technologies and practices in
Today, the artificial insemination has become a normal agriculture sector including animal husbandry (Agwu and
method of breeding quality cattle. A large number of cows Anyanwu 1996) where the producers’ characteristics such
and buffaloes are inseminated artificially. The technique of as age, education, social category and income, and farm
artificial insemination (AI) is particularly more useful in a characteristics such as size of landholdings, number of
country like India where the paucity of quality sires has crops grown and purpose of agriculture & livestock were
been the main hurdle in the way of cattle improvement. investigated as important factors that affect the information
Geo-Database of these centers can be created using GIS adoption in agricultural decisions. In the present study, the
technique. These centers can be displayed spatially. relationship between frequency of ICT based information
a. This spatial distribution of Artificial Insemination used in livestock decision-making and socio-demographic
centers will give immediate idea about their profiles of livestock farmers is analyzed using Spearman
distribution in complete state/nation. Rank Correlations. (Ali, 2015)
b. This will help to identify districts where number of
such centers are less or almost none and special

Table.1: Spearman's rho Correlations Matrix between use of ICT and socio-demographic factors
Variables Numb Age, Educationle Social Incomele Operationala Numb Farmi Membersh
er of Year vel Catego vel nd-holdings er of ng & ip in
times s ry Crops livesto Farmers'
ICT ck as Organizati
used busine on
ss
Number of times 1.00
ICT used
Age, Years 0.04 1.00
Education 0.21** - 1.00
level,High School & 0.13
above = 1, **
otherwise=0
Social 0.12* - 0.19** 1.00
Category,General 0.01
=1, otherwise=0 2
Incomelevel, >Rs. 0.12* -0.03 0.20** 0.14** 1.00
3000 = 1,
otherwise=0
Operationallandhold 0.16** -0.04 0.29** 0.16** 0.24** 1.00
ings, ha
Number of Crops 0.23** -0.05 0.33** 0.17** 0.17** 0.34** 1.00
Farming and 0.14** 0.01 0.020 0.046 -0.031 0.24** 0.077 1.00

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International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology (IJEAB) Vol-1, Issue-4, Nov-Dec- 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijeab/1.4.42 ISSN: 2456-1878
livestock as 5
business, Yes=1,
No=0
Membership in 0.07 - 0.18*** -0.019 0.17** 0.091* 0.25** -0.059 1.00
Farmers' 0.01
Organization,Yes=1 5
, No=0
SHG 0.018 0.03 0.004 -0.049 -0.008 0.020 0.15** 0.014 0.31**
Membership,Yes=1,
No=0
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level, * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level

The results of rank correlation analysis are presented in various aspects of animal husbandry were recorded on a
Table 4, which clearly indicate that use of ICT based five point likert scale. The results of mean scores of
information is positively and significantly related with the information quality and analysis of variance between users
operational landholdings (p<0.01), education (p>0.01), and non-users of ICT based information sources on 8
social category (p>0.05), income level (p>0.05), number of dimensions of livestock decision-making are given in Table
crop grown (p>0.01) and considering farming and livestock 3. The results on mean value of responses on various
as business (p>0.01). This implies that education, social livestock practices are less than 3 in most of the cases,
category and income of the farmers are important socio- which clearly indicate that farmers are receiving quality
demographic factors affecting the adoption of ICT based information for livestock decision-making. The results also
information system. Similarly, farmers with larger indicate that the mean scores on all the parameters of
landholdings, cultivating more number of crops in a year livestock rearing are lower in case of ICT users as
and considering farming and livestock as business venture compared to non-users. In order to analyze the difference in
are more likely to use ICT based information for livestock quality of information received by them, analysis of
decision-making. variance (ANOVA) has been carried out. Results of the
Prospect of ICT in Livestock Development analysis indicate that the value of F-statistics are significant
The major characteristics of quality information are at 1% level of significance for most of the production
relevance, accuracy, sufficiency and timeliness of service related decisions such as breeding, feeding, healthcare and
delivery for better decision-making. Quality information livestock production management. The usage level of this
plays a pivotal role in enlightening and raising the level of information is also comparatively higher as compared to
knowledge of livestock farmers on best practices across the information usage on processing and marketing of livestock
value chain. The quality perceptions of the farmers on based products.

Table.2: ANOVA on quality of information on animal husbandry

Livestock activities ICT based Non-ICT based F-value

N Mean Std. N Mean Std.
Deviation Deviation
Breeding 101 1.82 0.79 172 2.68 0.72 83.50***
Feeding 102 1.87 0.80 184 2.55 0.66 59.83***
Livestock healthcare 104 1.96 0.87 224 2.73 0.63 82.94***
Livestock management 59 2.19 0.75 135 2.60 0.66 14.76***
Milking techniques 57 2.54 0.85 118 2.83 0.71 5.53**
Quality management 52 2.42 0.85 105 2.75 0.79 5.83**
Market price analysis 54 2.17 0.75 117 2.38 0.64 3.84*
Marketing & selling 53 2.09 0.77 115 2.36 0.65 5.25**
***Significant at the 0.01 level, **Significant at the 0.05 level, *Significant at the 0.10 level
Note: Responses in five points likert scale indicated as very good=1, good=2, average=3, poor=4 and

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International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology (IJEAB) Vol-1, Issue-4, Nov-Dec- 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijeab/1.4.42 ISSN: 2456-1878
very poor=5
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