How emerging tech is helping the Indian farmer

The Tech Panda takes a look at how emerging technology is helping the farmer.

Farm surveillance and data-driven decision-making has become crucial for today’s farmer. There are problems a dime a dozen in agriculture.

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For example, Cotton is one of the most important commercial crops in India, accounting for around 23% of the total global cotton production. However, the recent Pink Bollworm (PBW) attack has become a significant threat, causing extensive devastation to the cotton crop, especially in Northern India. Additional to crop loss, farmers are also likely to shift from cotton to other crops, further straining water resources.

To counter this trend, India’s textile company Sportking India collaborated with ATGC Biotech, Reviving Green Revolution Cell and Team Athena Pvt. Ltd. to launch an initiative, ‘San-Vardhan’ (Cotton You Can Trust) in Punjab and Haryana. Under this initiative, ATGC Biotech launched a technology called the CREMIT (Controlled Release Enhanced Mating Interruption Technology) which enables eco-friendly population control by implementing ‘Insect Family Planning’ as a sustainable alternative to traditional insecticides, thus reducing insecticide usage on the crop and soil, thereby ensuring better PBW control.

It will also enable traceability of the produce. This is currently being implemented across 2,000 acres in three districts of Punjab and Haryana with about 500+ cotton farmers being trained on Integrated Nutrient Management (INM). The CREMIT technology’s efficacy is supported by several peer-reviewed publications including by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU)-Ludhiana, CICR-Nagpur, JAU-Gujarat, ANGRAU-Guntur, and MPCKV-Rahuri.

According to Munish Avasthi, Managing Director, Sportking India Limited, “The reduction of cotton output is a big loss to smallholder cotton farmers, ginners, yarn manufacturers, cotton fabrics and the entire value chain. PBW is becoming a costly pest for cotton farmers threatening income and livelihood, disrupting cotton supply. We are extremely happy to fund the CSR project “San-Vardhan” (Cotton You Can Trust) with CREMIT technology to help address the PBW and support North India cotton farmers.”

According to Dr. Baljinder Saini, Executive Director, Reviving Green Revolution Cell (RGR Cell), the implementing partner for this project, “Innovations in farming along with the adoption of good agronomic practices by farmers can help increase agricultural productivity in cotton farming. I am extremely happy that the textile industry is coming forward to help the cotton farmers and hope to see similar initiatives being launched in Central and South India cotton growing areas.”

The learnings from the North India project as well as a scientific approach in agronomic practices, application of nutrients and other agri inputs, is imperative for attaining better productivity and income enhancement for farmers. Leading Textile organizations can launch similar projects in Central and South India to help cotton farmers increase productivity, improve quality, and reduce costs thereby enabling inclusive growth for farmers, making substantive contributions in meeting domestic consumer and industry needs – in short, making cotton farming more sustainable.

An AI Tie Up to Up the Game in Farming

Last year, Arya.ag, an Indian profitable grain commerce platform, tied up with Bioseed, to up the game in farm surveillance and data-driven decision-making with Arya.ag’s satellite surveillance product, Prakshep, combined with the power of Artificial Intelligence ‘VaMa’.

Bioseed’s subscribed farms are poised to benefit from Arya.ag’s state-of-the-art data-rich datasets, enriched APIs, and dynamic maps. This collaboration carefully informs how seeds perform in various agroclimatic zones and prepares a suitable package of practice, assuring the utmost quality and dependability of data outputs.

“Arya.ag’s AI-driven platform, paired with our deep-rooted expertise in the agricultural field, promises a more informed future for Indian farmers. Physical Monitoring is often time-consuming and expensive, and there also exists a challenge of human bias. We are impressed with how Arya.ag has aligned their technology to integrate our strengths,” said Mr. Sreekanth Chundi, Executive Director & Business Head, Shriram Bioseed Genetics.

This collaboration aims to stir up the agri ecosystem through remote farm scouting, anomaly detection, and robust growth tracking using Arya’s web and mobile application. Arya.ag’s adherence to data privacy ensures that Bioseed’s sensitive farm data remains secure and private.

Arya.ag, also tied up with The Soybean Processors Association of India (SOPA) to enhance and streamline crop monitoring for Soybean across 51 districts. The collaboration will leverage Arya Ag’s cutting-edge satellite surveillance product, Prakshep, and its Artificial Intelligence “VaMa” powered by multiple data sources.

Fintech Helping the Farmer

In May, Leads Connect Services, an agritech data, risk management, and financial services company, and Ensuredit, an AI-based platform-as-a-service (PaaS) insurtech provider in India, tied up to establish a strategic joint venture (JV) named ‘Leads Ensuredit Private Limited’, which will harness the power of technology, data analytics, and industry insights to improve the financial resilience of farmers and agribusinesses by developing tailored insurance products that help with enhanced risk management.

Leads Connect Services also tied up with agribusiness and innovation platform, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (AIP-ICRISAT), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to study the dynamics of the agricultural value chain and develop sustainable solutions for all stakeholders in agriculture. The partnership aims to bridge the gaps in the agri-value chain and provide farmer-centric solutions like optimal markets for produce and fintech support.

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The agritech company also launched its game-changing AGRANI app, an end-to-end SaaS-based platform developed for all stakeholders in agriculture. It aims to connect all dots from farm-to-fork in the agricultural spectrum and provide farmer-first solutions using Space Tech Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. This is a part of the agritech’s initiative ‘Khet Se Kitchen Tak’, an agri value chain solution to support the farmers’ community, agri-businesses, and FPOs.

Navneet Ravikar, Chairman and Managing Director of Leads Connect Services, says, “It’s a transformative value chain platform that will bring much-needed transparency to transactions held at the mandis and FPOs.”