The Central Government has set a target of doubling of farmers’ income by the year 2022. To meet the target, the government has come up with various policies. One of the major initiatives to achieve this target is to implement modern technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the farms and to provide accurate and timely information regarding crops, weather and pest infection to the farmers.

This is because AI can improve crop productivity, reduce farm risks and improve the income of the farmers. Agriculture experts also agree that the real income for farmers should come from farms and not from freebies or government subsidies. AI can make all these possible says, agri-tech scientists. AI can turn around farming and make agriculture a profitable profession. Now a group of local farmers from the Guipalli, a small village in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh will vouch for this. In the past one year, these farmers are harvesting the benefits of AI on their farms and increase their yield.

In July last year, IT company Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Center of Excellence and Bengaluru based NGO Agastya International Foundation, set up AI and IoT technologies in the local farms of Guipalli. On a daily basis, farms produce hundreds of thousands of data. The aim of the project was to utilise these data effectively, analyse it and help farmers to gain insights on subjects including temperature, water usage and soil conditions.

The AI solution

The solutions included edge compute HPE Edgeline EL300, onsite IoT modules, drone imaging and analysis, a user interface and dashboard for monitoring and reporting of various on-ground parameters and activities at the fields. Images from drones and satellites were used to plot normalised difference vegetation index(NDVI) to demonstrate how it can be applied when scaled to larger farms. The technology and deep learning analytics were deployed to improve the farmers’ decision-making capabilities by providing them visibility into the current conditions of soil and by modelling possible future trends.

“Technology’s true promise lies in the good we can do and the challenges we can overcome together,” says Som Satsangi, Managing Director, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, India. The farmers were prescribed the amount of water to be released and the type of manure to select using nine different metrics such as values of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium (NPK), soil moisture, leaf wetness, acidic value, soil temperature and soil humidity captured by the IoT modules. This ensured the irrigation on the fields was based on scientific recommendations, and the correct manure and fertiliser were used according to the soil type and weather conditions.

“We started with data acquisition of various parameters like soil composition, soil moisture, humidity, leaf wetness and other parameters to derive patterns. We further worked on some data modelling to be able to do predictive and prescriptive analytics,” says Satsangi.

The Benefits

The project has generated significant benefits for local farmers. This enabled them to increase crop yields, nutritional value and revenue from their produce by applying technology.

“The artificial intelligence and machine-learning work achieved as part of this initiative has immensely helped the local farming community,” said Ramji Raghavan, Founder and Chairman, Agastya International Foundation.

The machine learning algorithms were used to test the soil conditions resulting in approximately 40 per cent savings in the water consumption when compared to traditional methods. “While the production was high we ensured the nutrition value doesn’t get impacted,” Satsangi says.

The solution also helped the farmers during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown by helping them remotely monitor the crops and make decisions related to the irrigation, soil treatment, nutrition and harvesting without the need to visit the fields.

The project will continue to assist the farmers as the sowing season approaches. With the early success of this initiative, HPE intends to scale this to help address additional challenges. “We are keen to replicate this project outside of Andhra Pradesh. We are in discussions with other states and possibly newer crops. We are looking at ways to collaborate with agriculture departments and partner with the government to help implement IoT based smart agriculture in India,” sums up Satsangi.