VISAKHAPATNAM: Farmers in the country generally worry a lot about their crops and bad weather conditions affecting those. To make the farmers rue less about crop loss due to the vagaries of nature and make them dependent on new technologies to mitigate the risks and get a good yield, Sencrop, a French company has introduced a new generation ‘agro weather station’.
This sensor will bring an accessible solution to all the farmers so that they can better manage the weather conditions and risks to their crops. During the Vizag Fintech Festival, the Sencrop team has exhibited their product and gave a demo on Wednesday, as part of the $1 Million Challenge, a contest to enable the start-ups to showcase their solutions and win up to $1 million that will fund their project and help them set up their office in Vizag.
Sencrop, which at present has around 4,000 stations in France, has also expanded its footprint to the UK and Germany. Their project is one that is likely to bring innovatively, but easy-to-use solutions for Indian farmers and even reduce the impact and need of spraying chemicals on the crops.
“This device is placed in the field and covers an area with 10 to 15 km radius. Through this new-age weather station, the farmers can know the air temperature, wind speed, humidity, rain, wind gusts and wind direction in their fields. While almost no maintenance cost has to be incurred for the device, every information it collects gets recorded in smartphones.
Even in case of heavy rains or winds, a text message will be sent to the farmers’ phones,” said Cedric Debonte, international business director of Sencrop, as he spoke to The New Indian Express about the device.
What you can get from the device
The device covers area with 10-15 km radius
Records data of fields and sent to the recipient every 15 minutes
Alerts on weather warnings sent through SMS
Detection of diseases, infecting the crops
The device is mobile
No maintenance cost to operate
Reduces farmers’ spraying of the chemical in the field