Several states are serious about adoption of AI in agriculture

The world is witnessing a widespread food crisis owing to a number of factors like climate change and other environmental shocks such as flooding and drought are adding to the food crisis. Also, supply chain disruptions caused by Russia-Ukraine and other conflicts, poverty, hyperinflation, rising commodity prices, lingering Covid pandemic, low production of cereals, and then rising population in some parts of the globe are making the food crisis acute.

The World Bank suggests that the rising food crisis is driving millions into extreme poverty, increasing hunger and malnutrition and threatening to wipe out the gains in terms of Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs) through the last few decades. Here, experts concede that only leveraging new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) can be able to combat this food crisis which otherwise may aggravate.

Evolving multi-fold in the last few years, artificial intelligence offers a slew of solutions in several sectors, including agriculture. AI can help in detecting crop disease, pests, impact of weather, pesticides and weedicides. AI helps farmers achieve higher yields through precision farming.

The lack of required infrastructure and technical knowhow and persisting with traditional styles of cultivation worsen agricultural problems in large part of the globe, including India. However, demands are fast growing. If estimates of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) are to be believed, demands for cereals, pulses, eggs, fruits, vegetables and milk may be more than twice by 2030 compared with the requirements in 2000. During this period, food grain demands are also expected to jump by more than 85 per cent. Similar is the situation in several parts of the world.

Sensing the situation well in advance, India has already ventured on to this path with all the required wherewithal. The Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council says, AI expenditure is expected to grow at 39 per cent year on year basis during 2019 and 2025 and Niti Aayog estimates that AI can add up to one trillion dollar to Indian economy by 2035 and experts suggest that a significant amount of this would be in the agriculture sector only.

Presently, the value of the Indian agri-tech market is estimated to be at $204 million. New AI technologies coming into being are expected to transform Indian agriculture with the Economic Survey suggesting the contribution of agriculture to India’s GDP is likely to be 19.9 per cent in 2020-21, which was just 17.1 per cent in 2019-20.

Moreover, AI can help in efficient and cost-effective resource and yield management, besides helping in coping with the complexities of modern agriculture. Helping in agri-data stacks, AI can help farmers to extract and analyze relevant information like temperature, weather, water consumption, soil conditions, use of fertilizers, besides supporting both public and privates entities who are increasingly getting involved in agricultural activities. AI can help farmers in having seasonal weather forecasts and early warnings to improve farming accuracy and productivity. AI with its accurate and real time data, can also help in addressing demand and supply mismatch.

Besides, precision farming, yield and price management would also be possible through AI-enabled internet of things, as the availability of 5G technology is just a matter of time. AI-supported drone-based cameras can also help identify real-time issues related to cultivation. Clearly, a combination of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, satellite imagery and advanced analytics is sure to lead us to smart agriculture with reduced uncertainties. Several states are serious about adoption of AI in agriculture, with Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and a few others spearheading the course.

(The author is a senior journalist)