KARACHI, Aug 4: The Sindh ministry of agriculture, in collaboration with Suparco, has launched geographical information system (GIS) to determine size of main cash crops, such as cotton, wheat and rice.

The system based on images drawn through satellite has been started in a few districts on an experimental basis.

Giving details of the GIS, Secretary of Agriculture Mohkam Din Qadri told Dawn on Saturday that the existing conventional method to determine size of crop would continue along with the imaginary survey through satellite to ensure greater accuracy of the crop data.

Elaborating his point he said GIS was presently in vague in the US and other European countries, but there are large integrated acreage blocks compared to smaller and scattered acreage blocks in the province.

Before taking pictures from the satellite small acreage would be grouped to get the correct results.

The secretary stressed the importance of existing manual surveys of the crops which unlike aerial surveys also take into account the damaged or infested portion of a standing crop. The manual system, however, consumes more time and requires a lot of manpower.

He, however, said that the ministry would use both the satellite and conventional systems to determine the size of main crops.

Asked about speculations generated by changing estimates of the cash crops, Mr Qadri said speculations about the size of the crops were started well before the crops are matured. These are aimed to influence the market by some vested interest.

Some trade bodies in cotton field do not rely on estimates made by the government but carryout their own surveys to plan their future buying and selling activity.

The secretary expressed the hope that with the satellite system of determining crop size, the trade would be greatly benefited.

Meanwhile, the Federal Agriculture Committee has fixed targets for the Kharif crops in the province. The target for cotton for 2007-08 has been fixed at three million tons against 2.3 million tons produced in the previous year.

The FAC fixes the target after taking into account the ground situation, including water availability, previous year production results and weather conditions etc. Representatives of all relevant departments, including Irsa attend the meeting.

Mr Qadri, who recently visited the US to attend a seminar on agriculture, said that quality of cotton produced in US was not superior than cotton produced in Sindh.

He further stated that the farm sector in the US provides little employment as only two persons manage the two acre farm whereas in Sindh about 200 farmers earn their living from a farm of the same size.