Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC) has been established under the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India for applications of space and geospatial technology in various domains of agriculture. The Centre, named after the great Indian Statistician, Dr. Prashant Chandra Mahalanobis, was inaugurated on 23rd April 2012.

MNCFC was established, initially, to provide in-season crop forecasts and assessment of drought situation using state of the art techniques and methodologies developed by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

Currently, various programmes/projects being implanted by MNCFC, include Pre-harvest multiple crop production forecasting, at national-state-district level for 8 major crops of the country under the FASAL project, District and sub-district level drought indicator assessment using satellite data, under NADAMS project.

Use of Satellite data for crop insurance (Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana), including crop loss assessment, area discrepancy and yield dispute resolution, risk zoning, seasonality mapping, etc., under KISAN project.