Not anymore. Last year, just as he spotted shrunken leaves, he downloaded an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven application on his phone and uploaded photographs of the leaves. The app, Plantix, took minutes to diagnose that the crop had crinkle virus infection and suggested remedies. The disease, if detected early, is easily controllable by tackling aphid, small sapsucking insects that act as vectors for the virus. “The disease was diagnosed in two minutes. I started remedial measures that afternoon itself. I also used better irrigation methods and harvested 850 kg black gram per acre, all thanks to AI,” says Ravichandran. The earlier output used to be 150 kg per acre.
In 2017, Maharashtra, the country’s biggest cotton producer, was hit by its worst pest infection on cotton in recent times. More than 50 per cent cotton farmers lost 30-60 per cent crop to pink ball worms. In 2018, the state government approached Wadhwani AI, a Mumbai-based AI research institute. The institute built a smartphone-based AI solution to help farmers identify the infection early. The solution, in the pilot stage, will be rolled out next year.
This story is from the July 26, 2020 edition of Business Today.
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This story is from the July 26, 2020 edition of Business Today.
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