Each morning Indian farmer R. Murali opens an app on his phone to check if his pomegranate trees need watering, fertilizer or are at risk from pests.
“It is a routine,” Murali, 51, said at his farm in the southern state of Karnataka. “Like praying to God every day.”
Much of India’s vast agricultural economy — employing more than 45 percent of the workforce — remains deeply traditional, beset by problems made worse by extreme weather driven by climate change.
Photo: AFP
Murali is part of an increasing number of growers in the world’s most populous nation who have adopted artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools, which he says helps him farm “more efficiently and effectively.”
“The app is the first thing I check as soon as I wake up,” said Murali, whose farm is planted with sensors providing constant updates on soil moisture, nutrient levels and farm-level weather forecasts.
The AI system developed by tech start-up Fasal, which details when and how much water, fertilizer and pesticide is needed, has slashed costs by one-fifth without reducing yields, he said.
“What we have built is a technology that allows crops to talk to their farmers,” said Ananda Verma, a founder of Fasal, which serves about 12,000 farmers.
Verma, 35, who began developing the system in 2017 to understand soil moisture as a “do-it-yourself” project for his father’s farm, called it a tool “to make better decisions.”
However, Fasal’s products cost US$57 to US$287 to install.
That is a high price in a country where farmers’ average monthly income is US$117, and where more than 85 percent of farms are smaller than two hectares, according to government figures.
“We have the technology, but the availability of risk capital in India is limited,” Verma said.
New Delhi says it is determined to develop homegrown and low-cost AI, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to co-host an AI summit in France opening on tomorrow.
Agriculture, which accounts for about 15 percent of India’s economy, is one area ripe for its application. Farms are in dire need of investment and modernization.
Water shortages, floods and increasingly erratic weather, as well as debt, have taken a heavy toll in an industry that employs about two-thirds of India’s 1.4 billion population. India is already home to more than 450 agritech start-ups with the sector’s projected valuation at US$24 billion, a 2023 report by the Indian government’s NITI Aayog think tank showed.
However, the report also said that a lack of digital literacy often resulted in the poor adoption of agritech solutions.
Among those companies is Niqo Robotics, which has developed a system using AI cameras attached to focused chemical spraying machines.
Tractor-fitted sprays assess each plant to provide the ideal amount of chemicals, reducing input costs and limiting environmental damage, it says.
Niqo claims its users in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh states have cut their outlay on chemicals by up to 90 percent.
At another start-up, BeePrecise, Rishina Kuruvilla is part of team that has developed AI monitors measuring the health of beehives.
That includes moisture, temperature and even the sound of bees — a way to track the queen bee’s activities.
Kuruvilla said the tool helped beekeepers harvest honey that is “a little more organic and better for consumption.”
However, while AI tech is blossoming, take-up among farmers is slow, because many cannot afford it.
The Indian government must meet the cost, said Agricultural economist R.S. Deshpande, a visiting professor at Bengaluru’s Institute for Social and Economic Change.
Many farmers “are surviving” only because they eat what they grow, he said.
“Since they own a farm, they take the farm produce home,” he said. “If the government is ready, India is ready.”
UNCERTAINTY: Innolux activated a stringent supply chain management mechanism, as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure optimal inventory levels for customers Flat-panel display makers AUO Corp (友達) and Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that about 12 to 20 percent of their display business is at risk of potential US tariffs and that they would relocate production or shipment destinations to mitigate the levies’ effects. US tariffs would have a direct impact of US$200 million on AUO’s revenue, company chairman Paul Peng (彭雙浪) told reporters on the sidelines of the Touch Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday. That would make up about 12 percent of the company’s overall revenue. To cope with the tariff uncertainty, AUO plans to allocate its production to manufacturing facilities in
Taiwan will prioritize the development of silicon photonics by taking advantage of its strength in the semiconductor industry to build another shield to protect the local economy, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said yesterday. Speaking at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee, Liu said Taiwan already has the artificial intelligence (AI) industry as a shield, after the semiconductor industry, to safeguard the country, and is looking at new unique fields to build more economic shields. While Taiwan will further strengthen its existing shields, over the longer term, the country is determined to focus on such potential segments as
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS