How AI based technologies can help Indian farmers

20 December 2021, New Delhi: Agriculture Engineering and Technology interventions helped the farmers usher in the Green Revolution that helped the nation sail towards Food Security and become a net food surplus nation. Advances in science have continued to hand hold the farmers in meeting challenges. With the advent of Information Technology, Mobile phones, GIS, Robotics and now Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly popular with agronomists and scientists in addressing the issues of agriculture.

With an armour of information supported by AI, on weather, prices of inputs and agri produce, farmers can Plan field and soil preparation, place orders for purchase of seeds and inputs, pick time window for crop sowing, harvesting, plan storage doe staggered supply of produce in markets to benefit from market price discovery.

This in turn also mitigates the risk of market fluctuation and fall and rise in prices for the consumers, said by Mr Pradeep Multani, President, PHD Chamber. 

The AI provides market insights which guide farmers decisions, for example, consumers searching for millets will be interpreted as increasing demand for millets and farmers can take a cue to sow millets to reap profits instead of any other cereal or grain.

The technology helps supply chain managers make faster, more informed decisions by combining weather forecasts with their unique business insights.

Also Read: No Crop insurance for horticulture farmers of Madhya Pradesh for last 2 years

At a time when farmers and agtech companies face supply chain challenges owing to an emergency like situation, a pandemic or a disaster, it is crucial for them to have access to near real-time location-specific weather and traffic views.  This will help the farmers make the right decisions on harvesting, processing, storage and supply of their produce, and the agtech companies to manage on-ground operations which include logistics.

Cold chains as well as producers of fresh fruits and vegetables can hyper-locate the start and end locations, which gives them a complete visibility into the current as well as future weather conditions, en-route to transport their produce across cities, before they perish.

The intersection of AI and GIS is creating massive opportunities in agriculture.