Smart Governance
T
SmartAgri
he fields had been freshly
plowed. The furrows ran
straight and deep. Yet,
thousands of farmers across Andhra
Pradesh (AP) and Karnataka waited
to get a text message before they
sowed the seeds. The SMS, which was
delivered in Telugu and Kannada,
their native languages, told them
when to sow their groundnut crops.
In a few dozen villages in
Telengana, Maharashtra and Madhya
Pradesh, farmers are receiving
automated voice calls that tell them
whether their cotton crops are at risk
of a pest attack, based on weather
conditions and crop stage. Meanwhile
in Karnataka, the state government
can get price forecasts for essential
commodities such as tur (split red
gram) three months in advance for
planning for the Minimum Support
Price (MSP).
Welcome to digital agriculture,
where technologies such as Artificial
Intelligence (AI), Cloud Machine
Learning, Satellite Imagery and
advanced analytics are empowering
small-holder farmers to increase
their income through higher crop
yield and greater price control.
AI-based sowing advisories
lead to 30% higher yields
“Sowing date as such is very
critical to ensure that farmers
harvest a good crop. And if it fails,
it results in loss as a lot of costs
are incurred for seeds, as well as
the fertilizer applications,” says
Dr. Suhas P. Wani, Director, Asia
Region, of the International Crop
Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics (ICRISAT), a non-profit, non-
political organization that conducts
agricultural research for development
in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with
a wide array of partners throughout
the world.
Microsoft in collaboration
with ICRISAT, developed an AI
Sowing App powered by Microsoft
Farmers using
Artificial
Intelligence
to increase crop yields
Cortana Intelligence Suite including
Machine Learning and Power BI.
The app sends sowing advisories to
participating farmers on the optimal
date to sow. The best part – the
farmers don’t need to install any
sensors in their fields or incur any
capital expenditure. All they need is
28 | May 2018 | www.smartgovernance.in