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.”
– Dr. Suhas P. Wani,
Director, Asia Region,
ICRISAT
a feature phone capable of receiving
text messages.
Flashback to June 2016. While
other farmers were busy sowing
their crops in Devanakonda Mandal
in Kurnool district in AP, G.
Chinnavenkateswarlu, a farmer from
Bairavanikunta village, decided to
wait. Instead of sowing his groundnut
crop during the first week of June,
as traditional agricultural wisdom
would have dictated, he chose to sow
three weeks later, on June 25, based
on an advisory he received in a text
message.
Chinnavenkateswarlu was part
of a pilot program that ICRISAT
and Microsoft were running for 175
farmers in the state. The program
sent farmers text messages on sowing
advisories, such as the sowing date,
land preparation, soil test based
fertilizer application, and so on.
For centuries, farmers like
Chinnavenkateswarlu had been
using age-old methods to predict
the right sowing date. Mostly, they’d
choose to sow in early June to take
advantage of the monsoon season,
which typically lasted from June to
August. But the changing weather
patterns in the past decade have led
to unpredictable monsoons, causing
poor crop yields.
“I have three acres of land and
sowed groundnut based on the sowing
recommendations provided. My crops
were harvested on October 28 last
year, and the yield was about 1.35
ton per hectare. Advisories provided
for land preparation, sowing, and
need-based plant protection proved
to be very useful to me,” says
Chinnavenkateswarlu, who along
with the 174 others achieved an
average of 30% higher yield per
hectare last year.
To calculate the crop-sowing
period, historic climate data spanning
over 30 years, from 1986 to 2015 for
the Devanakonda area in Andhra
Pradesh was analyzed using AI.
To determine the optimal sowing
period, the Moisture Adequacy
Index (MAI) was calculated. MAI is
the standardized measure used for
assessing the degree of adequacy of
rainfall and soil moisture to meet the
potential water requirement of crops.
The real-time MAI is calculated
from the daily rainfall recorded and
reported by the Andhra Pradesh
State Development Planning Society.
The future MAI is calculated from
weather forecasting models for the
area provided by USA-based aWhere
Inc. This data is then downscaled
to build predictability, and guide
farmers to pick the ideal sowing
week, which in the pilot program
was estimated to start from June
24 that year.
Ten sowing advisories were
initiated and disseminated until
the harvesting was completed.
The advisories contained essential
information including the optimal
sowing date, soil test based fertilizer
application, farm yard manure
application, seed treatment, optimum
29 | May 2018 | www.smartgovernance.in