AI and Indian Farming
Are Agri-tech startups a boon to Indian Farmers?
The title of the world’s largest population may not be convincing to the majority. But being the world’s largest producer of Milk, Jute and Pulses maintains the dignity. Our position stands firm as the second-largest producer of Rice, Wheat, Sugarcane, Cotton, etc. Hence, it becomes evident that the majority of our population is dependent upon agriculture for its survival. Agriculture is the primary source of income for many people. To obtain the most from it and ease the workload, AI serves as a helping hand.
The groceries and the food from street vendors are either bought off the shelf or eaten directly. The raw ingredients that are grown and cultivated on farms are the hard work of our farmers. In India, 50% of the workforce has been employed in agriculture and a growing population now 1.4 billion is dependent on the crops produced. But traditional methods are now making way for new technology that promises to make farms more efficient, productive and profitable.
Yeah! Thanks to artificial intelligence.
For generations, Indian Farms have sown and tilled only with traditional know-how, but some are trying out something unique with sensor devices on their Vineyard that checks weather and soil health and uses artificial intelligence to figure out when to water the crops at fertilizer and Tackle pests.
Then the developers receive a precise advisory on a mobile app. The Vineyard has no groundwater sources and these wines grow with the water that is purchased from outside tankers. With the help of this AI data, the people are now able to irrigate them only at the crucial stage and that’s helping them to save around 50% of the water that they actually used before.
Meet the Start-Up behind this Invention
Built in India’s Silicon Valley Bangalore by startup Fyllo Agri Tech the service has led to a near 25% boost in productivity on crops like Grapes and guavas. Their informed decision-making is only one part of the solution to improve productivity, but weeding out inefficiencies in the existing age-old agricultural practices is also crucial.
AI-powered robots offer a solution, this one is equipped with precision cameras that scan the ground in real time, programmed to avoid false spraying. The way spraying is done in India is on an acre level and their mission is to boil that down into plant-level decision-making just by spraying only on the plants.
They saw 56% savings improved rural digital connectivity and government support for Agri Tech startups have pushed Farm Innovations, but even now just 2% of cultivators use Tech in farming. We need to enable the digital public infrastructure and the second is going to be public-private partnerships.
India always had resource constraints. We possibly are perhaps the lowest in yield level. We possibly are constrained on finance and and insurance services for the farmers and that’s where the Gap needs to be filled with AI data-driven agriculture promises.
But will need considerable time and investment to reach the majority of India’s farmers. But it’s better to be late than Sorry and hence reach the destined target.