Can AI help farmers, revolutionise India's agriculture?

The soil of India is special. It is believed that farming in India started as far back as 9000 BC. According to official estimates, India right now has between 100 and 150 million farmers. The share of agriculture in the GDP has increased to 19.9 per cent in 2020-21 from 17.8 per cent in 2019-20, according to the Economic Survey. Also listen: Can Technology, AI, Robots End Manual Scavenging, A Blot For India?What can revolutionise this key sector of agriculture? During a webinar titled the Positive impact of Union Budget 2022 on the Agriculture Sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spelt out the government's vision for the future. He explained how AI and drone usage will benefit the farm sector in future. Yes, Artificial Intelligence is taking over the world. From streaming music to choosing the best restaurant near you, AI is becoming all-encompassing. As per the International Data Corporation report of 2021, India’s AI market is expected to reach $7.8 billion by 2025. So, how does AI fit in plans for farming, you ask? Prepare to be surprised. Farmers face various problems both on and off the field. From choosing the suitable soil, appropriate fertilisers and pesticides, to reaching the market and getting loans. And AI can help. Here's how.In December 2021, IIT Kanpur's Foundation for Innovation and Research in Science and Technology developed a portable soil testing device that can detect soil health in just 90 seconds through an embedded mobile app. Billed is the first-of-its-kind innovation based on Near Infrared Spectroscopy technology, and it is available on the Google Play Store. It is linked to a mobile app called Earth Checker, which provides real-time soil analysis reports on smartphones. Here's what IIT Kanpur director Abhay Karandikar said about the tech, named Bhu Parikshak. “The soil testing device technology, which we call Bhu-Parikshak in Hindi, has been developed by our faculty professor Jayan Kumar Singh and his team. We have now transferred this technology to a startup called Agro-Next services private limited. The device can successfully test the various parameters of the soil.”In July 2021, researchers at IIT Mandi developed an AI-based model for detecting disease in potato crops by using photos of the leaves. Just to put its usefulness in perspective, about 40 percent of global crops are wasted annually due to pests. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, every year invasive pests cost countries at least $70 billion. This tool by IIT Mandi scientists can detect the blight disease in potatoes from the images of the leaves. The model is based on an AI tool known as Mask, which is a region-based convolutional neural network architecture. It can detect the diseased portion of the leaf with precision.Srikant Srinivasan, Associate Professor at IIT Mandi's School of Computing and Electrical Engineering, spoke to The Economic Times about the blight disease and how traditional methods of detection are cumbersome. "The blight is a common disease of the potato plant that starts as uneven light green lesions near the tip and the margins of the leaf and then spreads into large brown to purplish-black necrotic patches that eventually leads to rotting of the plant. If left undetected and unchecked, blight could destroy the entire crop within a week under conducive conditions. In India, as with most developing countries, the detection and identification of blight are performed manually by trained personnel who scout the field and visually inspect potato foliage," he said. When AI is around, can drones be far behind? Well the answer is no! In February 2022, Prime Minister Modi flagged off 100 drones urging Indian farmers to use the machines for better crop production and efficient farming. Some farmers have already been doing that. Saurabh Ghewari, who lives in Pandharpur town and assembles drones, told The Times of India that till February 2022, he had sold 10 drones to farmers. Of these sold, six were in western Maharashtra. We'll read out what Ghewari:“There is a great demand from sugarcane growers in Sangli and Kolhapur districts. There are other suppliers too,” says Ghewari. So there you have it. The agriculture sector in India is taking baby steps towards technology, turning to AI tools and concepts for efficiency and better crop yields. There are also game changing startups like Absolute Foods, Ninjacart, and DeHaat by Agrevolution. Absolute Foods is a food production and agriculture company that fuses science, technology, and agriculture to enhance food production. To achieve the objective, they take help of an AI-driven operating system that helps farmers grow crops without using synthetic enzymes and GMOs. Ninjacart is yet another innovative AI-agriculture startup platform that provides fresh farm vegetables and fruits to retailers, kiranas, and other businesses across India. Their AI-driven integrated supply chain enables Ninjacart to complete all the buying and selling processes within 12 hours. DeHaat is an application designed by Agrevolution. The startup is committed to delivering effective services to farmers, microentrepreneurs, and institutional buyers in India. These AI-driven agriculture startups are hoping to turn the baby steps into giant strides by fusing AI with agriculture. Of course, there is still a long way to go. Voices: Sumit Bhattacharya, Sahil GuptaAudio production: Prateek Kapoor