Alike other Industries, AI is going to provide many solutions to Indian farmers to resolve prevailing agricultural distress in the economy. Agriculture Industry is one of the biggest Industry and provide support to many other industries such as manufacturing etc.
A report published by IBEF says that Agriculture Industry contributes 10% of Country's export and it attracts Foreign Direct Investment as well.
The major factors which cause agricultural distress in Indian economy are climate change, old approach of farming, population growth, less price for crops and security of crops from pesticides. These factors call for innovative approach to farming and use of technology in agriculture industry.
Agriculture Industry mainly faced with the problem such as low quality of crop, less price to crops, inappropriate harvesting, inaccurate weather weather forecast.
3 Major AI based solutions to reduce Agricultural Distress:
Measure Crop and Soil Health
A Bengaluru based Intello labs with the use of deep learning algorithms helps in image analysis. Using this technology, farmers can check health of their crop at different stage of its growth. It provides grading to different food products on quality.
Deforestation in India has lead to reduced soil fertility and cause less crop yield. Sometimes the low quality of soil raises food security concern for farmers. Berlin based agricultural startup PEAT developed Plantix, an application based on deep learning algorithm to identify defects in crops and soil health.
Agricultural Predictive Analytics
Microsoft in collaboration with United Phosphorous developed Pest Risk Protection to help farmers with advance information about pest attacks. Here with the help of AI and machine learning, farmers can take preventive action to protect their crop yield from pest attacks.
Various other machine learning analytical models help farmers to predict the impact of various environment factors on crop yield. Farmers can forecast weather conditions and accordingly take corrective measures.
Microsoft has developed an AI based Sowing app that forecast the right time to sow crops as per the climatic conditions. Farmers using this app get text or voice message to guide the farmers about the right time for sowing of crops. The impact of unstable climate change can be resolve through these techniques.
Robots to control weed:
Today's farmers are faced with the common challenge herbicide resistance. To overcome this Blue River Technology developed an agricultural robot to ensure weed control and protect crops. A robot called See and Spray using automation and Computer vision spray weeds on cotton precisely and prevent herbicide resistance. Some develop countries are using robots to harvest their farm crops and reduce their labor cost.
The emerging technologies and developments in AI proving solutions to many agricultural issues such as crop yields, soil health, unstable climatic condition, pest attack etc. this will improve the efficiency of farmers and increase their farm income. Stability in agriculture sector with the help of AI based technology will help to achieve a step ahead in economic development.
