NIT Rourkela, ISRO's NRSC and Tea Board India Sign MoU for AI-Based Tea Plantation Monitoring

10 September 2026National

NIT Rourkela (Odisha) signed a tripartite MoU in Kolkata with the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of ISRO and the Tea Board of India for Project CHAYANKAN - Comprehensive AI-based Geospatial Data Analytics for Tea Plantation Monitoring. The three-year R&D project (April 2026 - March 2029) will build an AI-based geospatial system for tea plantation mapping, yield estimation, crop-health assessment and pest and disease forecasting. It combines satellite imagery, UAV-based hyperspectral data and ground observations with machine-learning models. The Tea Board of India is a statutory body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, set up on 1 April 1954 under the Tea Act, 1953.

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NRSC, headquartered at Balanagar, Hyderabad, is ISRO's remote sensing data acquisition and dissemination centre | Assam is India's largest tea-producing state, followed by West Bengal | The Tea Board of India functions under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and is chaired by Nitin Kumar Yadav

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