HYDERABAD: If all goes well, you may soon find robots watering agricultural fields in Telangana. Though in its initial stages, this is one of the aspects of the State government’s proposed plan to include emerging technologies in farming and allied activities.
The government, in collaboration with Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) and the World Economic Forum (WEF), has been working to explore the various use cases of data-driven agriculture in Telangana.
Though it had announced the program as Artificial Intelligence for Agricultural Innovation (AI4AI), the features go beyond the ambit of AI and includes components such as remote-sensing satellites, robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT), among others.
According to experts, data-driven agriculture would help farmers monitor their land and crops — the first key component of the project. “Farmers can monitor the soil, weather, input demand, seed demand and so on — the entire value chain of agriculture — through big data,” V Praveen Rao, Vice-Chancellor of PJTSAU, said.
They can also collect the data and use it for future planning, which is the second part of this hi-tech plan. “Farmers can analyse the data and find out what is good for the farm. For instance, if they put a sensor in the field, they will get inputs that may help reduce costs and improve quality,” Praveen Rao said.
The data gathered from the sensor in their farms can help predict the yield, based on which farmers can gauge how many harvesters they would need, Praveen Rao said. The third component of the project is ‘precise delivery’, which involves technologies such as drones or robotics. According to sources, a few startups in the agri-tech area have showcased how robots can water crops such as cotton, and a pilot may be in the offing soon.
But the Telangana government still faces the challenge to make data-driven agriculture appealing to farmers. Until farmers are shown that there is value attached to adopting such techniques, they maybe hesitant to take it up, experts say.
Key aspects of the project
Though in its initial stages, Telangana government plans to include emerging technologies in farming and allied activities