The agriculture and allied sectors are the backbone of the India’s economy. Artificial Intelligence (AI), will play a key role in modernizing agricultural activities and realising the goal of doubling the farmer’s income by 2022.

India’s national AI strategy also identifies agriculture as one of the key areas where AI can enable development and greater inclusion. AI-enabled solutions in agriculture help farmers improve crop productivity, monitoring soil health, optimise pest and weed management, manage irrigation, and help in releasing the best price for the farmer. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is working towards developing the agriculture sector in line with the country’s aspiration. Upgrading the technology quotient in agriculture is a key focus area.

On November 6, 2020, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Mr. Singh Tomar announced that the Centre will soon launch an AI-powered ‘price information and market intelligence system’ which will enable farmers to find out the latest rates of various farm produce in markets across the country.

While announcing the initiative, he said, “We are developing a mechanism for prices. Through this mechanism, even a person sitting in Badaun will know the prices prevailing in Kolkata market everyday in the morning. This system is being developed and it will be launched very soon.”

Many start-ups are also now getting themselves engaged in upholding the agricultural sector through AI system. A company is using AI to power a sowing app in Andhra Pradesh, resulting in a higher crop yield per hectare. Additionally, AI algorithms are being used to monitor crop and soil health, where AI-based analytics solutions are used to plan events like crop harvesting, pest control and fertilisation to optimise yields. Recently it was reported that self-made entrepreneurs like ex-IITians Mr. Taranjeet Singh Bhamra and Mr. Rajamanohar Somasundaram have launched an AI-powered platform that helps the growers, buyers, and end-users of farm produce. The platform facilitates instant quality assessment and traceability linkages to remove subjectivity and bring transparency across food value chain.

It is interesting to note that the IT and Industries department principal secretary Mr. Jayesh Ranjan announced that Telangana is focusing on artificial intelligence in agriculture and it has created many data sets on reports covering weather and agriculture prices, location of market yard.

Speaking at the Indo Data Week organised by DAV Data Solutions, Ranjan said that Telangana is one of the first two states in India to have Open Data Policy after Sikkim. “The policy which came into being four years back puts responsibility on government, institutions and other stakeholders. AI must be effectively used for social innovation. Modern farmers must be digital farmers. We at the government embarked on AI for Agriculture Innovation. Telangana Government uses AI for Agricultural Innovation,” Ranjan said. He added that State owned Agriculture University is creating a Data Hub and standardising it along with other partners.