Intelligent Farming

AGRI FIRMS NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN USING AI TO HELP FARMERS FIGHT PESTS, KEEP SOIL HEALTHY AND EVEN PREDICTING PRICES OF THEIR PRODUCE

- K.T.P. RADHIKA

Ravichandran is a fourth-generation farmer from Poongulam village in Tamil Nadu’s Thiruvarur district. The 62-year-old owns 52 acres of land on which he grows rice, cotton, pulses, sugarcane and black gram. For years, pests had been attacking his black gram crop, and it took days, even weeks, to consult agricultural experts. By the time he got the remedies, the infection spread, resulting in crop loss.

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.