In recent times, agriculture is witnessing the penetration of technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the sector, be it drones, weather predictors, automated machinery, AI-enabled planting and weeding, automated irrigation, and harvesting. AI also works in areas such as soil testing and analysis, predicting suitable environment for crops’ safety and even created various social platforms for the farmers to interact.
Creating transaction opportunities
Farmers have limited options to do transactions in any vertical. For example, for input buying they are dependent on a few local retailers and sometimes have to travel far to a different district or a different state altogether to explore better quality seeds. For cattle trading, their only options are local agents or animal trade fairs which are not very frequent. Similarly, for output selling farmers don’t have a direct reach beyond the local aggregators to explore better prices for their produce. With technology coming into play, farmers will have more options to do their day-to-day business, be it in any domain.
Precision farming
Farmers’ income can be increased by optimising their yield, and their input cost can also be saved to a larger extent. A lot of tech companies are building hardware and offering solutions to help farmers take preventive measures even before a possible pest attack to save their crops. There are tools to capture data related to moisture, soil conditions, weather, nutrients etc. at a very micro level so that farmers only have to use very specific fertilisers or agrochemicals in dedicated land areas instead of using everything on the entire land. This would save their input cost as well as maintain the fertility of the soil.
Improved supply chain
Broken supply chain in rural areas has been a persistent problem. Along with other sectors and their stakeholders, agricultural stakeholders and farmers suffer the most as for fruits and vegetables the shelf life is very short. Also, since the market prices are dynamic across different mandis, farmers are often at a loss or they are able to realise lesser profits as compared to what they could. Technology can help build better supply chain solutions, traceability, and bring in transparency in prices across different mandis, etc.
Access to credits & loans
Only 30% of Indian farmers have access to institutional credit. The remaining 70% are dependent on informal credit which comes at very high interest rates. This happens mainly because of the lack of farmers data – their transaction history, credit history, assets, earnings etc. Once farmers start transacting digitally or at least start sharing their transaction activities digitally, it would be easier to maintain their records which will provide the means to institutional lenders to evaluate their creditworthiness and issue loans at standard interest rates.
Today, no sector is untouched by technology. Among them, agriculture is a sector on which the entire human life cycle depends and with the aid of digital tools and platforms, we will see a significant improvement in the coming years. Because of agri-tech, the agriculture sector of the country is set to undergo a transformation and remarkable changes will be seen. The agriculture sector depends on technology, agricultural machinery, food and fertilisers, irrigation and market system and in the coming years, Artificial Intelligence will help farmers in all these things. Agri-tech will play a crucial role in all processes ranging from sowing seeds in the field, to harvesting the crops and selling the finished crop.
In view of the positive impact, the farming community will be further inclined to leverage digital tools, platforms and techniques to improve productivity, profitability and reduce costs. The penetration of smartphone and cheaper internet have already created suitable ground for agri-tech adoption. Some agri-tech start-ups are working in this area and developing such technology which will enable farmers to get the right price of the product, agricultural advice, marketing, weather information, online selling and buying of agricultural products.
The author is the CEO and Founder of Krishify, a networking app for farmers.