HYDERABAD: A farmer, on noticing something wrong with his crop, uses a smartphone application and clicks a picture. He then visits the local pesticide trader who is unable to coax the farmer anymore into buying anything more than he needs. The farmer, using the smartphone application aided by Artificial Intelligence (AI), is now able to decide for himself what is best for his crop.
This is not a hypothetical scenario anymore. AI will help farmers decide on how to protect their crops from pests and diseases.
The application, Plantix, developed by German start-up firm PEAT in association with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), has tailored the application for farmers of the Telugu-speaking states.
“With this app, any farmer having a smartphone can take an image of the crop and, within a few seconds, get the diagnosis, the symptoms, the triggers and the solutions he needs to decide what is best for his crop,” said Srikanth Rupavatharam, a digital agricultural scientist at ICRISAT. The application only requires an active Internet connection. It has been designed to work even on the lowest quality of camera phone, he added.
“There are several instances of rural farmers being abused by traders,” said the scientist. When a farmer approaches a trader with a small crop sample, the latter tries to push products that may not be addressing the real problem.
This app will inform farmers the list of chemicals and active ingredients he will need for his crop so that he cannot be cheated, he added.